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ESCHATOLOGY; 



OK, 



THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 



OF 



THE COMING Of THE LOBD, THE JUDGMENT, AND THE 

EESUEEECTION. 



BY 

SAMUEL LEE. 
* » 



"Let God be true, but every man a liar." — Paul. 










BOSTON: d 

J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY. 

185 9. 



f\%t\ 



X 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, by 

J. E. TILT ON AND COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



CAMBEID GE : 
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, ELECTKOTYPEKS AND PRINTERS. 



(0 



<M 



PREFACE. 



Early in his ministry, the writer attempted to gain 
some definite views on the subject presented in this vol- 
ume. He consulted authors, and especially commentators. 
The effect was "confusion worse confounded." He then, 
as the only hope, went directly and alone to the volume 
of Inspiration, and attempted to study the Scriptures scrip- 
turally, — to make the Bible its own interpreter. The re- 
sult is the opinions expressed in the following pages. 

He had thought several years since of submitting his 
views to the public. But just then, that volume of bril- 
liant truths and startling errors, " Bush on the Resurrec- 
tion," made its appearance. This was soon followed by a 
volume in reply, full of gross personal abuse, and of the 
odium theologicum, and withal utterly without discrimina- 
tion or logic. It was supposed that the public, by that 
time, must have become wearied, if not disgusted ; and that 
nothing more on the general subject should, for the time 
being, solicit its attention. 

It has been an object with the writer to make his book 
as small as possible. Instead of attempting to make the 

(v) 



VI PREFACE. 

argument on each separate point complete and full, he 
has aimed in most cases to be suggestive only, by giving 
merely the outline of thought. The strongest argument 
in support of the theory advocated, is found in the con- 
templation of the subject as a whole, and in the fact that 
it goes through the Bible, and by a natural and easy ex- 
egesis, disposes of an entire class of texts that have given 
great embarrassment to commentators. We have not de- 
signedly passed over a single point of difficulty. The evi- 
dence that you have the true skeleton-key to the build- 
ing, is not in the fact that some of the doors are opened 
by it, but in the fact that at every door the bolt yields 
readily to its touch. This is claimed for our theory. 

The reader not familiar with Greek, must pardon the 
constant reference to the original Scriptures. The subject 
can be thoroughly discussed in no other way. Every trans- 
lation of the Bible, must be, to some extent, a paraphrase. 
The authors of the Common Version had a theory on the 
subject of this volume. Of necessity their translation was 
modified by that theory. This the reader will see as he 
proceeds. The reference by us, therefore, must be direct 
to the words which the Holy Spirit has taught. We have 
taken special pains to render the book readable to the mere 
English scholar. And we hope, that while such will not 
be able to appreciate fully some of the criticisms, they will 
so perceive the general course of argument to be in keep- 
ing with the general drift of the Scriptures, as to recog- 
nize their harmony. 

It would savor of presumption to say that the hypothesis 
we propose, will, when once propounded, commend itself 



PREFACE . Vii 

to those familiar with the New Testament, as too obviously- 
true to need labored proof. It is certainly true that most 
that is said in the New Testament on the subject, seems 
to necessitate our theory by an import obvious and positive. 
The few apparent exceptions are found in instances of 
Hebrew idiom transferred to the Greek language, and 
which, as a consequence, have been understood literally. 

To such of his brethren in the sacred office as may dis- 
sent from the theory here advocated, the author would 
propose that, with the common theory, they go through 
the New Testament with as rigid an exegesis as is here 
attempted, — if they can. 

The author commends his little work to the blessing of 
the great Head of the church. He could not have con- 
sented to its publication, with the inevitable sequences, 
but for the hope that the cause of the Bible might be 
promoted by it. It is believed that one of the conditions 
of a more spiritual religion, and of a fuller development 
of Christian character, is, bringing the realities of the un- 
seen world very much nearer. The primitive church were 
constantly waiting for and "hasting" the Coming of the 
Lord. To the modern church, that Coming is far away in 
an indefinite future. To the primitive church the Coming i 
of the Lord was a doctrine soul-stirring and of mighty j 
power. To the modern church it is merely a matter of 
theory and of creed, but in no sort a practical theme. Are 
the utterances of the modern pulpit on this subject, the 
same as were those of apostolic preaching ? 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

THE COMING OE THE SON OP MAN . . 1 

The Kingdom . 5 

Son of Man 11 

The Coming 12 

Scripture Argument 13 

Dan. 7 : 9-14 14 

Matt. 10: 23 • .16 

"16:27,28 17 

" 19:27-29 19 

" 13 : 24-30, 36-43 21 

" 13:47-50 30 

Luke 18 : 1-8 31 

Subordinate Texts . .32 

Matt. 21 : 28-32 32 

« 21 : 33-45 33 

" 22:1-14 34 

" xxiv . . . .36 

" xxv 45 

" 26:63, 64 . 51 

(ix) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE COMING OF THE LOUD . . 53 

The Apostles "in error" 55 

Opinion of Dr. Watts 55 

Olshausen . . 58 

Conybeare 59 

Thomas Arnold ..... 61 

Barnes . . . . . ... 61 

Edwards . . . . . . .62 

Locke 64 

Hudson . . . . . . .67 

Tholuck and German Commentators . 68 

Destruction of Jerusalem — James 5 : 7, 8 . .72 

Coming of the Lord — what ? . . • . . . 74 

Scripture Argument ...... . .76 

Texts that refer to the close of the present life. 

1. Considered as a state of suffering, trial, or probation 79 

2. With the Judgment as an associate event . . 82 

3. And heaven as then having its commencement . 85 

4. And hell as then having its commencement . . 90 

Objections .91 

2 Thess. 1 : 6-10 ...... 91 

"2:1-9... . . . . .93 

2 Peter 3: 3-9, 10-17 . . . • . . . 103 

Locality of Heaven . . . . , . 114 



CHAPTER III. 

THE JUDGMENT 



Matt. 16 : 27, 28 



John 5 : 22, 23, 27 



121 

. 124 

125 



CONTENTS. xi 

Matt. xxv. .... , . . . 126 

Acts 10: 42, 43 . . .... . .126 

" 17:31 ... . 127 

John 12: 31 128 

Rev. 22: 12 . . .129 

1 Pet. 4:5 130 

2 Pet. 2:3. .130 

Matt. 12:36 . 131 

2-Pet 2:4, 9 132 

Jude v. 6 . . . . . . . . . 134 

2 Tim. 4: 1,2 134 

Matt. 11 : 20-24 .135 

" 12: 41, 42 .140 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE RESURRECTION . . .148 

Old Testament 148 

Later Jews . . . 154 

New Testament 157 

Matt. 22: 23-32 158 

Acts 23: 6. 24: 15 . . . . . . .160 

Phil. 3 : 20, 21 162 

John 5: 21-29 .164 

" 11: 23-26 169 

2- Cor. 5:1-4 171 

John 6: 39, 40 . 173 

1 Cor. 6: 14 175 

Uohn3:2 176 

Matt, 27: 50-53 . ... . . . .177 

Resurrection of Christ . . . . . . 180 

Acts 26: 23 . . . . . . . .182 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Colos. 1 : 18 183 

1 Cor. xv 191 

1 Thess. 4: 13-18 218 

CHAPTER V. 

PROPHECY RESTORED . . .228 

Rev. xx-xxii. 228 

>» 

CHAPTER VI. 

CONCLUSION .. . . .250 

Summary 250 

Orthodoxy 255 

Ethical Import 264 






ESC HAT L G Y. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE COMING- OF THE SON OF MAN. 

The language of the Saviour can be understood 
only as we know the circumstances in which it was 
uttered, and especially the character and opinions of 
the persons addressed. This is preeminently true of 
what he says of himself as " The Son of Man," of 
his " kingdom," and of his " coming in his king- 
dom." 

Most modern commentators seem to suppose that 
the Jews, and especially the disciples of Christ, occu- 
pied the same stand-point as themselves, and that 
the language addressed to them on this subject, must 
mean what it would mean if addressed to the men 
of this day. As well might it be assumed that what 
should have been said in the days of the Messiah, of 
the earth, the starry heavens, the rising of the sun, 

1 



2 ESCHATOLOGY. 

meant what it would mean now. The Saviour 
meant to say and did say what he knew his honest 
hearers would understand him to say. He knew of 
course that the unbelieving Jews would not under- 
stand him. In them would be fulfilled the prophe- 
cy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, 
and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see 
and shall not perceive. But his disciples understood 
him, or if they did not at first, they asked for expla- 
nations. Jesus took special pains to have them un- 
derstand him. In one instance, after uttering several 
parables, and giving, of some of them, private expla- 
nations to his disciples, he says to them, " Have ye 
understood all these things ? " " It is given unto 
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of hea- 
ven " (Matt. 13 : 11, 51). On another occasion, 
" I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and 
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes " (Matt. 
11 : 25). There may seem to be exceptions, but 
these will be found on examination rather to estab- 
lish the rule. When Christ told his disciples that 
he was going up to Jerusalem, and should there be 
betrayed and delivered to the Gentiles to be cruci- 
fied (Mark 9: 31, 32), they did not understand him. 
Not but the words were of obvious meaning ; but it 
was no part of their programme of the Messiah's 
work. They knew not how to reconcile this with 



CHRIST UNDERSTOOD BY HIS DISCIPLES. 3 

other supposed facts. And as the subject was so 
tender and so awful, they refrained from again intro- 
ducing it and asking for explanations. But this only 
confirms the general rule that the disciples under- 
stood what Jesus said to them either at first, or after 
seeking explanations. 

Of course it is not denied that there was a length 
and breadth and depth and height of meaning in the 
words of the Saviour, the whole of which neither 
the disciples nor any other man in any age, could, 
while in this world, fully comprehend. What we 
claim is, that while their conceptions must be inade- 
quate, the Saviour did not designedly leave them 
with erroneous impressions of the import of his lan- 
guage. What he said might imply more than they 
understood, and than he knew they would under- 
stand, but it was designed to imply that. 

The disciples were sometimes in error. But when- 
ever they expressed that error, the Saviour corrected 
it. When, for instance, they were discussing the 
question who should be the greatest in the kingdom 
he was soon to establish, and with, as he very well 
knew, erroneous and secular views, he told them their 
error. In one case he took a child and set him in 
their midst, and told them, if they would be great in 
his kingdom they must be like little children (Matt. 
18: 1-6). At another time he taught them that to 
acquire distinction and honor in his kingdom they 



4 ESCHATOLOGY. 

must be servant of all, as he himself was, — rebuking 
thus their ambition and correcting their error. 

There were some truths which the Saviour did not 
at that time reveal. While, for instance, he knew 
that they were looking to his kingdom in its tempo- 
ral aspects, almost exclusively, if not quite so, he did 
not in that particular correct them. The time had 
not yet come for life and immortality to be brought 
to light. That belonged to the illumination of the 
Christian Dispensation. While in this particular 
their opinions embraced but a part of the truth, it 
was yet truth and not error. There was in fact to 
be an exalted felicity and unfading honor connected 
with their relations, in this world, -to the kingdom of 
the Messiah. 

If this be not so, — if, when the Saviour spoke of 
coming in his glory and rewarding them for their 
fidelity, he had reference only to the future world, 
while yet they understood him to refer to what was 
temporal, did he not of purpose deceive them ? Did 
he not, again and again, amid the discouragements 
connected with discipleship to him in his state of 
humility, hold out to them encouragements which, 
as understood by them, and known of course to him 
as so understood, had no foundation in fact ? What 
I know a man understands by what I say to him, 
that I do say to him. 



THE KINGDOM. 



"THE KINGDOM." 

What — let it be distinctly propounded — did the 
disciples understand by " the kingdom " which the 
Messiah was to administer? (We say administer; 
for reign or administration, rather than "kingdom," is 
in most cases the proper rendering of fiaoilsia.) Were 
their ideas of it chiefly as of this world, or of the fu- 
ture ? Unquestionably the former. That after the 
illumination subsequent to the glorification of Christ, 
they saw that kingdom in its higher glory in a future 
world, we know. But we are considering them as 
attending upon the man Christ Jesus in the days of 
his humiliation, and are seeking for the import of 
language as addressed to them at that time. 

These disciples were Jews. Their education, so 
far as they had received any, was Jewish. Their re- 
ligious opinions and impressions were from the Old 
Testament — as interpreted at that time. 

It was no part of the design of the Old Testa^ 
ment to teach a future state. It taught it only by 
indirection, and then very obscurely. The Hebrews 
were on this subject behind the more intelligent na- 
tions of heathendom, their cotemporaries. And so 
far as they had any notions of a hereafter, they seem 
to have derived them from these nations. In the 
earliest and almost the only allusion to a future state 

1* 



6 ESCHATOLOGY. 

as one of rewards and punishments, found in the 
Old Testament, it is spoken of as taught by travel- 
lers, and as the belief of foreign lands. " Have ye 
not asked them that go by the way [travellers] ? and 
do ye not know their tokens [testimony], that the 
wicked is reserved to the day of destruction ? " (Job 
21 : 29, 30.) The writings of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans and also of the Eastern nations furnish very 
much more on this subject than do the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures. A marked effect of the captivity 
was the development of this idea. Not that the in- 
spired Writings of a subsequent date present it ; but 
it is found in other Jewish literature. (See 2 Mace. 
vii.) 

If we refer to the Mosaic Institute we shall find 
that its motives are drawn not from the future, but 
the present world. The rewards of fidelity and the 
penalties for disobedience were of time and earth. 

And when we come to the time of the Saviour we 
find the fact of the future state an open question. 
The Pharisees asserted it : the Sadducees — the more 
educated and refined part of the community, denied 
it. And by this denial they did not lose caste as 
"orthodox." They, in common with the Pharisees, 
were members of the Sanhedrim. The philosoph- 
ical habits of the Alexandrian Jews seem not to have 
taken the direction of this question. They were the 
advocates and the exemplifiers, some of them, of a 



THE KINGDOM. 7 

spiritual religion, in the Platonic sense, — a religion 
that had direct connection with God, in the absence 
of form and ceremony. But it was a present relig- 
ion. So far as we are able to learn, it looted not 
beyond the grave. It contemplated man as he now 
is. 

The prophetic representations of the reign of the 
Messiah would lead the unspiritual to understand it 
as of this world. 

The fact of the Messianic reign is more distinctly 
brought to view in Daniel than in any other of the 
prophets. But what is this presentation ? Turn we 
to chap. ii. Here are symbolized the Babylonian, 
the Medo- Persian, and the Grecian kingdoms, with 
that, so complex, of the successors of Alexander. 
In succession to these " the God of heaven sets up 
a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and the 
kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall 
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and 
it shall stand forever." Here we notice that the reign 
of the Messiah is indicated by the same terms as are 
these secular governments, and the same qualities 
and functions are attributed to it. It is not to be 
left to other people. It breaks and consumes all 
other kingdoms. Not a word to indicate its spiritual 
character. 

Chap. vii. is an advance upon chap. ii. Still the 
whole description is temporal and secular. One like 



8 ESCHATOLOGY. 

" a son of man" appears, and under the especial divine 
patronage stands at the head of power. " There is 
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that 
all people, nations, and languages, should serve him ; 
his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall 
not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not 
be destroyed." " And the kingdom and dominion, 
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of 
the Most High." 

There is indeed in chap. 12: 1-3 an allusion to 
what is more spiritual. In that " time of trouble 
such as never was since there was a nation" — the 
same as that to which the Saviour refers Matt. 24 : 
21, and which implied the end cf the Jewish civil 
and ecclesiastical polity — there would be saved all 
the truly spiritual, and they, with that Gentile "dust" 
that should be roused to life, would constitute a new 
organization, — save the drawback of those to whom 
the gospel should prove a savor of death unto death. 
The good would shine as the brightness of the firma- 
ment, and turning many to righteousness, as the stars 
forever and ever. But this language, exceedingly 
obscure till after the events had transpired, would be 
unintelligible to a Jew. Yet with this exception all 
the descriptions of Daniel are such as a Jew — such 
Jews as were most of the nation in the days of the 
Saviour — would understand as applying to a tem- 
poral kingdom. 



THE KINGDOM. 9 

And if we refer to other cotemporary and earlier 
Prophets, we shall find the same temporal and espec- 
ially Jewish imagery employed. Ezekiel sees a new 
city — a new Jerusalem and Temple, and the most 
ample accommodations for the ceremonies of the 
Mosaic Institute; and the Holy Land apportioned 
off anew for the several tribes, all of which were to 
be restored to their integrity and distinct locality. 
Here was Judaism glorified. 

Isaiah is presented with scenes of prosperity and 
of surpassing glory to the friends of God. Eye had 
not seen, nor ear heard, neither had entered into the 
heart of man, the things that God had prepared for 
them that love him.. There should be a new. heaven 
and a new earth. The sun should no more go down 
nor the moon withdraw her shining. But this was 
all to be Jewish prosperity. All nations were to 
come up to Jerusalem with their gold and their silver 
as offerings to the God of Israel. The flocks of Ke- 
dar and the rams of Nebaioth should minister to the 
Temple service. • 

As a matter, of fact this language of the prophets 
was, in the time of Christ, understood to imply that 
there was to be raised up a mighty prince who should 
rule over the Jews in power and splendor, and who 
should lead them oh, not only to the attainment of 
their liberty from the yoke of oppression, but to the 
conquest of the nations. And it was to posts of 



10 ESCHATOLOGY. 

honor in such a kingdom and under such a prince, 
that the disciples aspired. It was with reference to 
such positions of distinction that they repeatedly 
disputed among themselves who should be great- 
est — and that, almost up to the very hour of the 
crucifixion (Luke 22 : 24—30). Maternal aspirations 
operated in this direction : " Grant that these my 
two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the 
other on the left, in thy kingdom." It was this sec- 
ular and unsanctified anticipation that led Peter, — 
when Christ told the disciples that he must go up 
to Jerusalem and there be rejected by the chief priests 
and scribes, and be crucified, — in startling forgetful- 
ness of himself and of propriety, to rebuke (!) his 
Master, — though we may hope that love for that 
Master had some place with ambition in his heart. 
It was this hope of national deliverance that led the 
multitudes when Jesus was entering Jerusalem, to 
spread their garments and branches of trees in the 
way, and cry Hosanna to the Son of David — the 
very multitude that in a few brief hours, and when 
their selfish hopes were disappointed, cried, Crucify 
him ! Crucify him ! 

That the oft repeated instructions of the Saviour 
in relation to the nature of his kingdom, could not 
have failed to produce a deep impression on the 
minds of the disciples, we believe. They doubtless 
felt that there was that in the subject which they but 



SON OF MAN. 11 

imperfectly understood, and which it was the pleas- 
ure of their Master not then to explain more perfectly. 
He told them there were many things which they 
could not then bear, and which would be explained 
at a future time. 

If the view we have taken of what were the theo- 
ries of the disciples be correct, it must modify very 
materially our interpretation of no inconsiderable 
portion of the Gospel. It has seemed to the writer 
that most modern commentators have perpetrated a 
very flagrant anachronism, in assuming that the dis- 
ciples, when attending upon Christ in the days of 
his flesh, had substantially the same views, as had 
those same disciples after the day of Pentecost and 
the gift of the Spirit. 

These remarks premised, we proceed to the more 
direct and scriptural consideration of the subject of 
this chapter, — " The Coming of the Son of Man," 
TtanovGia rov vlov xov dv&QGJTtov. 

" The Coming of the Son of Man " is to be dis- 
tinguished from " The Coming of the Lord." This 
latter will be considered in the following Chapter. 



SON OF MAN. 

"With one exception, the phrase " The Son of 
Man" is used in the New Testament only by the 
evangelists, and by them always as from the lips of 



12 ESCHATOLOGY. 

the Saviour himself. It denotes ordinarily the Man 
Christ Jesus, and when not, the Messiah as ens-aped 
in introducing- his kingdom to the world, rather than 
as presiding in it. The Saviour was glorified and 
definitively constituted the Son of God in power 
and authority at his resurrection. Rom. 1 : 4. Acts 
2 : 33, 36. 5 : 31. Phil. 2 : 9. Heb. 10 : 12. Still, 
his kingdom as embracing the only religion from 
heaven, was not completely constituted. The Jew- 
ish Religion, as embodied in the Mosaic Institute, 
was in the world, and by divine authority ; — an 
authority not yet revoked in form. And it was not 
till the providence of God, by the annihilation of the 
Jewish polity, civil and ecclesiastical, had put an end 
to that Institute, that Christianity stood the sole 
religion by divine appointment. Then the kingdom 
of Christ had fully come. The Saviour indeed re- 
marked, on one occasion, that the Law and the 
Prophets were until John ; but by that did not design 
to say that the ceremonies of the Old Testament, 
were abrogated, for himself observed them (Matt. 
26 : 18), but only that with John began the dawning 
of the day of the Messiah's kingdom. 



"THE COMING/' 

" The Coming of the Son of Man " is to be inter- 
preted with the same latitude, and applies to the work 



SCKIPTURE ARGUMENT. 13 

of the Messiah from the time of his resurrection to 
the overthrow of the Jewish power. Not till then — 
when the seventh angel had sounded — were there 
great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
his Christ. Then the transition period closed. As 
instances of the use of this phrase as referring to the 
time of his resurrection, see Matt. 10 : 23. Luke 
22: 69. " Hereafter (clao rov vuv^from now) shall the 
Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of 
God." The parallel text in Mark (14 : 62) is, « Ye 
shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." 
So in Matt. 26 : 64. See also Eph. 1 : 20-22 ; 
Rom. 1 : 4. Heb. 1:3. As instances of the use of 
the language in application to Christ down to the 
time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the com- 
plete introduction of the Christian Dispensation, see 
Matt. 24 : 30, 37-39. Mark 13 : 24-26. Luke 21 : 
25-27. 



SCEIPTUKE AEGUMENT. 

The language of the New Testament concerning 
the Coming of the Son of Man will be understood 
only as the following extract from the captive Pro- 
phet is rightly interpreted. We have briefly alluded 
to it on a previous page. 

2 



14 ESCHATOLOGY. 



Daniei, 7 : 9-14. 



" I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of 
days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his 
head like the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame, and 
his wheels as burning fire. (10) A fiery stream issued and came 
forth from before him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, 
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the judg- 
ment was set, and the books were opened. (11) I beheld then 
because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake : I 
beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and 
given to the burning flame. (12) As concerning the rest of the 
beasts, they had their dominion taken away : yet their lives were 
prolonged for a season and time. (13) I saw in the night visions, 
and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of 
heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him 
near before him. (14) And there was given him dominion, and 
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, 
should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be de- 
stroyed." 

It is unnecessary here to go into an extended ex- 
amination of the prophetic significance of this lan- 
guage. The views of the writer are substantially 
those of Prof. Stuart in his commentary. The Pro- 
phet is chiefly occupied in this chapter — as indeed 
in most of his prophetic record — with what should 
befall his people in the latter days. They were to 
exist as a weak and feeble nation for a long period, 
in the neighborhood of a great and cruel nation 
under successive dynasties, and at length a fierce 
and terrible persecutor should arise in the person of 
Antiochus Epiphanes — the " little horn " — by 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 15 

whom the daily sacrifice should be taken away. 
But God would preside over these mighty agencies, 
and bring them to an end in his own good time. 
This is represented by vs. 9-12. The Prophet sees 
a court organized : thrones are put in place : the 
Ancient of days is seated as Judge, surrounded by 
myriads of angels in waiting to hear and execute 
his decrees. The books are opened, and the facts 
adduced. The verdict is given and executed. These 
kingdoms are among the things that were ; and es- 
pecially is the beast of the little horn slain, and his 
body destroyed and given to the burning flame. 
Antiochus the persecutor is brought to a sudden 
and terrible death. 

The next great fact of importance to the holy 
people, is the advent of their Messiah, and the in- 
troduction of the Messianic Dispensation. This is 
represented in vs. 13, 14. One " like to a son of 
man" is seen enthroned on moving clouds. He 
approaches the Ancient of days and receives from 
him a glorious and everlasting kingdom. 

It is with reference to this scene, and the lan- 
guage employed to describe it, that Christ is called 
" The Son of Man" and Ms inauguration as " Head 
over all things to the church " described as " The Son 
of Man coming in his kingdom " — " in his glory " — 
"in the glory of his Father:' Matt. 16: 27, 28. 
25: 31. 



16 ESCHATOLOGY. 

There is of course an especial appropriateness in 
applying to the Messiah as God manifest in the 
flesh, and while acting as the man Christ Jesus, the 
designation " Son of Man." The Scriptures are 
emphatic in declaring and in making prominent as 
a great fact, that Christ was a real and proper man, 
made of a woman. And it is doubtless for this pur- 
pose that Christ so often calls himself the Son of 
Man. Still this phrase with its adjuncts as quoted 
above has evident reference to Dan. 7 : 13. See 
Ezek. 1 : 26-28. Rev. 1 : 13. 

Let us now turn to the New Testament, and see 
if its language does not admit of easy explanation 
on this hypothesis. 

* Matthew 10 : 23. 

"But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into 
another : for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over 
the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come." 

This is an extract from the instructions which the 
Saviour gave to his disciples as he sent them forth 
to preach and to say, " The kingdom of heaven is at 
hand." He did not conceal from them, he distinctly 
forewarned them, that they would suffer persecu- 
tion. But let them be encouraged : the glorious 
event which was to be the burden of their message, 
and to prepare men for which, their work, was very 
near. Before they should have gone over the cities 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 17 

of Israel in their missionary tour, it would become 
reality. The Messianic Dispensation would be com- 
menced. 

This language of the Saviour decides positively 
that by the coming of the Son of Man was meant, 
not his appearance in the flesh, nor the commence- 
ment of his public ministry, but an event then 
future, yet near. Understood as referring to Dan. 
7 : 13, 14, it would imply the introduction of the 
Christian Dispensation. 

Matthew 16: 27, 28. 

" For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father 
■with his angels ; and then he shall reward every man according 
to his works. (28) Verily I say unto you, There be some stand- 
ing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of 
man coming in his kingdom." 

Here are two facts that have greatly embarrassed 
commentators. 1. The Son of Man would soon, — 
during the life of some who heard him, — come in 
his kingdom — in the glory of his Father with his 
angels. " Shall come," pllla eqxsg&cu, is now about to 
come. 2. His " coming " would imply his elevation 
to the office of Judge of all men. " Then," that is, 
when he comes and receives his kingdom, he would 
reward every man according to his works. Hence- 
forth the Father would judge no man, having com- 
mitted all judgment unto the Son. John 5 : 22, 
27. 

2* 



18 ESCHATOLOGT. 

That the phraseology of these verses — " Son of 
Man " — " Come in the glory of his Father with his 
angels " — " See the Son of Man coming " — not 
now to receive, but having received and thus " in his 
kingdom" — is derived from Dan. 7: 13, 14, will 
not, we think, be questioned by any. The parallel 
text in Mark (9 : 1) is " till they have seen the king- 
dom of God come with power" (tv Svvdpei). In 
Luke (9: 27), "till they see the kingdom of God." 
The equivalent import of these several forms of 
expression is worthy of notice. 

The attempt to make the assurance that some of 
those present should see Christ in his kingdom, refer 
to his transfiguration (Bib. Repository, 1842, p. 335), 
is simply puerile. The transfiguration occurred 
but six days after the utterance of this language. 
Gravely to assure an audience (it did not consist of 
the disciples merely, Mark 8 : 34) that some of them 
would be living at the end of six days, were ludic- 
rous. Besides, the transfiguration was not the Son 
of Man coming in his kingdom. His kingdom had 
in no sense commenced. He afterwards speaks of 
his coming in his kingdom, as yet future. (Matt. 
19:28. 25:31.) 

To make these verses refer to the " Final Judg- 
ment," considered as a great fact coming in immedi- 
ate sequence to the " end of the world," and the 
closing up of the history of the race on the earth, is 



SCKIPTUEE ARGUMENT. 19 

to violate the plainest laws of language. More than 
eighteen hundred years have elapsed since this lan- 
guage was uttered, and the world is now standing 
and the Judgment therefore yet future. How then 
say that some who heard it should see the coming of 
this august day ? 

Yet again : The occasion which led to the remark 
forbids such a construction. The Saviour had just 
before informed his disciples that he was to " suffer 
many things ; " and that they, as his disciples, must 
be sufferers also. And they were in danger of dis- 
couragement while suffering for one whose condition 
was so humble, and who seemed so far from having 
it in his power to remunerate them for their fidelity. 
But he assured them that he should soon assume a 
new condition and appear in glory. His cause, 
therefore, was not a hopeless cause, nor were his dis- 
ciples following a phantom. 

Matthew 19: 27-29. 

" Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have 
forsaken all, and followed thee ; what shall we have therefore ? 
(28) And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye 
which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of 
man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (29) And 
every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or 
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's 
sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting 
life." 



20 ESCHATOLOGY. 

IIcdiyyEveoia, regeneration, denotes that regener- 
ated state of the cause of religion implied in the 
introduction of the reign of the Messiah. At that 
time he would sit on his throne, and administer the 
divine government and grace. And his disciples 
would then, as Apostles, occupy places of great 
honor in the church. The regenerated state referred 
to, was the kingdom of Christ in the world. Israel 
would then be regenerate and spiritual. The point- 
ing of the common translation, in many editions, is 
not correct. It should be thus : " Ye which have 
followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of 
man," &c. 

That this language may have a sort of application 
to Christians while suffering in this world and with 
reference to their reward in a future, is doubtless 
true. But that this was the primary import in the 
mind of the Saviour, or was so understood by the 
disciples, we cannot believe. The disciples at this 
time knew but little of, and were but slightly influ- 
enced by, a reference to a future state. "While, of the 
kingdom of the Messiah as to be developed in this 
world, they had read and thought much. Their con- 
ceptions of what was implied in their sitting on 
thrones, must, of course, have been inadequate. 
Little did they think of what was to be their influ- 
ence as Apostles and preachers of the truths of the 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 21 

kingdom ; and still less, that as inspired writers, they 
should one day govern, with absolute sway, the 
human race. 

That this is the import of the promise appears 
further from verse 29 : " Every one that . hath for- 
saken houses or brethren, &c., for my name's sake, 
shall receive a hundred -fold, and shall inherit ever- 
lasting life." Here the hundred-fold is what had 
been promised in the preceding verse, and the ever- 
lasting life is an advance upon that. As if he had 
said ; Not only is all that I have said true of your 
position and privileges in that future Idngdom, of 
which you have thought and read so much in the 
Prophets ; but beyond all that, and of which you 
have as yet but the faintest conception, there is 
another and higher world in which you shall receive 
an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 

Matthew 13 : 24-30, 36-43. 

" Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The king- 
dom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in 
his field: (25) But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed 
tares among the wheat, and went his way. (26) But when the 
blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the 
tares also. (27) So the servants of the householder came and 
said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? 
from whence then hath it tares ? (28) He said unto them, An 
enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou 
then that we go and gather .them up? (29) But he said, Nay; 
lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with 
them. (30) Let both grow together until the harvest: and in 



22 ESCHATOLOGY. 

the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together 
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them : but 
gather the wheat into my barn." 

" (36) .... His disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto 
us the parable of the tares of the field. (37) He answered and 
said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man ; 

(38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the 
kingdom ; but the tares are the children of the wicked one ; 

(39) The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the 
end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. (40) As there- 
fore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire ; so shall it be 
in the end of this world. (41) The Son of man shall send forth 
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things 
that offend, and them which do iniquity; (42) And shall cast 
them into a furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of 
teeth. (43) Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in 
the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him 
hear." 

The question is, — "What did the disciples under- 
stand by this parable and the explanation of it? 
And what did the Saviour know they would, and 
therefore design they should understand by it ? Let 
it be remembered that in this same chapter (v. 11) 
the Saviour had told the disciples that it was given 
to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom, 
while to others it was not given : and that, therefore, 
he was ready to give to them any explanations they 
might ask. And he did explain to them the parable 
of the sower, and also, that of the tares. 

And if these parables and several others that were 
uttered at the same time are examined, it will be 
seen that their primary and special application was 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 23 

to the hearers and the men of that day — the duties 
and the facts of that period. Thus in the parable 
of the sower (v. 21) : " When tribulation or persecu- 
tion ariseth because of the word, by and by he is 
offended," — referring to the trials to which the first 
disciples were subjected by the malice of the Jews. 
So when (vs. 31-33) the kingdom of heaven is com- 
pared to a grain of mustard-seed, and to leaven, the 
reference is to the beginnings of that kingdom in 
that day. And in vs. 44-46 where this kingdom is 
represented as treasure hid in a field and found, — 
as a pearl of great price found by a merchant-man, 
reference is to the kingdom of the Messiah as now 
introduced to the world, and the discovery of the fact 
as made by men. These all point to the hearers and 
to their particular circumstances and times. "Was 
the same true of the parable of the tares, and of the 
net ? — for it will be admitted that they both refer to 
the same thing. 

The Saviour asked them (v. 51) if they under- 
stood all these things. They answered in the affirm- 
ative. Christ knew what they understood. He did 
not, as on other occasions when they were in error, 
correct them. What, therefore, they understood him to 
say, that he did say. And that is the meaning of his 
words to us. 

Putting ourselves, then, in the condition of the dis- 
ciples, let us interpret, as they would, the parable. 



24 ESCHATOLOGY. 

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. 
This defines the time as that in which the designa- 
tion " Son of Man " was applied to the Saviour. 
The disciples would think only of the then present 
time in which their Master was inculcating the 
truths of the new dispensation he was introducing 
to the world. 

The field is the world (xocpog), society, the com- 
munity, all to whom the gospel of the kingdom was 
preached. 

The harvest is the end of the dispensation 
(c/Mvog, and v. 40 alwvog tovzov, this dispensation). In 
vs. 39-41 the reference is to the same facts as in 
chap. 24 : 31. In the latter case they are represented 
as gathering the wheat ; while here they are spoken 
of as gathering the tares. A separation of the good 
from the bad is in both cases indicated. The con- 
nection in one case requires a reference to the good, 
in the other to the evil. In the one case, Christ was 
reproving and admonishing the wicked Jews, and 
warning them of their doom as the tares in the 
Saviour's field. In the other case, the disciples were 
to be comforted and their hopes encouraged by the 
assurance that the Saviour was to gather a pure and 
holy church to be organized on the principle of per- 
sonal holiness in the individual members, and to be 
composed in part of the Jews. 

This gathering of the wheat by a process that 



SCPJPTUBE ARGUMENT. 25 

should eliminate the tares, — the organization of a 
church of personally religious members, was not to 
take place till after the resurrection, when 'Christ 
should have retired from sight to the sphere of faith. 
He would then " send forth his angels " (ayyiXovg^ 
messengers), that is, employ an appropriate agency 
in organizing his church. 

The tares are to be burned — cast into a furnace 
of fire. This refers to the fearful evils that were to 
come upon the unbelieving portion of the Jewish 
nation. See chap. 23 : 34-39. 24 : 2, 21, 29. 

In this parable the Saviour taught the disciples 
that the Jewish church was hopeless of reformation. 
The attempt to gather the tares would root up the 
wheat also. It was no part of the errand of the 
Messiah to reform the Jewish church. It was to be 
destroyed, and a new one, organized on a new prin- 
ciple, to succeed. 

" Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun 
in the kingdom of their Father." This new church 
to be organized on the day of Pentecost was to be a 
" glorious church," and in its progressive sanctifica- 
tion and its earnest work of faith and labor of love, 
exhibit such a scene as earth had witnessed never. 

Precisely this it is which is foretold in Dan. 12 : 
2, 3. After the destruction of Antiochus Epiph- 
anes (Dan. 11 : 45), and after the relief and partial 
prosperity which Michael the prince of the Jews 

3 



26 ESCHATOLOGY. 

should secure to them ; there would be a time of 
trouble such as there never was since there was a 
nation — but from which all who are written in the 
books should be delivered. In other words, the 
wheat would be saved when the tares were cast into 
the furnace of fire. 

But this shining forth of the righteous as the sun 
in the ldngdom of their Father has a broader import 
than that a few comparatively of the Jews should 
be saved. Daniel sees them that sleep in the dust 
of the earth — " the very clods of Gentilism " — 
awake under the new power of a new dispensation. 
And though some of them awake to despise and 
wonder, and to find the gospel a savor of death unto 
death, yet others obey and live, and Jew and Gen- 
tile, now one in Christ, compose a church active and 
successful in turning many to righteousness, and as 
such, shining as the brightness of the firmament and 
as the stars forever and ever. 

The Prophet Joel (2: 28-32) refers also to the 
same facts. " And it shall come to pass afterward, 
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and 
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your 
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall 
see visions : (29) And also upon the servants and 
upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out 
my Spirit. (30) And I will show wonders in the 
heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 27 

of smoke. (31) The sun shall be turned into dark- 
ness, and the moon into blood, before the great and 
the terrible day of the Lord come. (32) And it 
shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the 
name of the Lord shall be delivered : for in mount 
Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the 
Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord 
shall call." 

Verses 28, 29 were fulfilled on the day of Pente- 
cost. See Acts 2 : 16-21. Verses 30, 31 had their 
accomplishment in the destruction of the Jews — 
the burning of the tares. Verse 32, " Whosoever 
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved " 
— is the gathering of the wheat — the gathering of 
Christ's elect (Matt. 24: 31). 

Such, it is believed, is the import of the parable 
of the tares, as addressed to the disciples. These 
disciples had no such practical convictions of a fu- 
ture state, or such knowledge of the glory of Christ's 
kingdom as reaching away into the infinite and 
eternal of that state, as to lead them to refer this 
parable to the heaven and hell that are there. Be- 
sides, the truth which we find in the parable was 
truth of the utmost practical importance to them at 
that time, in order to act well their part in the scenes 
but just before them. The kingdom of the Messiah 
was to be introduced with them as leading actors. 
A new and spiritual church was to be organized: 



28 ESCHATOLOGY. 

the old Jewish church was to be abandoned as hope- 
less of reformation — as doomed in the providence 
of God to destruction. But the New Church, in the 
establishment of which they were to be leaders, 
though it must encounter difficulties and dangers to 
its friends, was yet sure of success ; was soon to be 
invested with glory — a glory in which they would 
be participators. How natural, therefore, that these 
chosen actors in this work should be told just these 
things. 

But we shall be told, the language " shine forth as 
the sun in the kingdom of their Father," cannot have 
application to earth. "Why not ? Is not the king- 
dom of God " within " us ? Did not the Saviour 
come into this world to prepare and espouse to him- 
self "a glorious church?" Will the objector read 
Isaiah lx, which certainly refers to the Church of the 
Messiah on earth. The fact is, the Christians of 
this day need the moral power of this language as 
understood to apply to the church on earth. It will 
elevate their aims ; it will magnify to them the 
grace, of which Christ is " full," and of which they 
may receive in the largest measure — " even grace 
for grace " (John 1 : 14, 16). It is believed that 
modern commentators need only a more adequate 
conception of what is the essential glory, and of 
what is to be, one day, the manifested glory of the 
kingdom of Christ, to interpret more correctly the 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 29 

language of the Saviour to his disciples — and the 
language of the inspired writers generally. The ab- 
solute violence perpetrated upon the closing chapters 
of Revelation, had never been but for this reason. 
In these chapters earth is not taken to heaven, but 
heaven brought down to earth. And here — in this 
world — the theatre of the Saviour's great work, is 
that work brought to its perfection and glory — to 
the praise of the great Actor. 

If it be objected to this interpretation, that " all 
things that offend and that do iniquity " are to be 
gathered "out of his kingdom " — i*. rrjg fiaodeiag — 
whereas his kingdom is, on our hypothesis, not yet 
organized ; we reply, first, that a close and very 
rigid exegesis will find difficulties on the common 
hypothesis. The Messianic church is not strictly 
the organisations of professed disciples that bear that 
name, but real Christians : and " out of" that church 
none are to be gathered for destruction. Besides, 
on the common hypothesis, are the angels to be 
sent forth on the day of judgment, only to gather the 
hypocrites " out of " the church ? 

The true explanation, whether on the present, or 
the common theory of application, doubtless is, that 
" kingdom " is to be understood in the larger sense 
as including those who, in various degrees, avow a 
sort of friendship and respect for Christ. A refer- 
ence to the parable of the sower in vs. 3-9, 18-23 of 

3* 



30 ESCHATOLOGY. 

this same chapter will make this obvious. The 
Saviour, by proclaiming, in his own person and by 
his disciples, the " word of the kingdom," was sow- 
ing the seed. The reception and the effect of the 
word was various in the case of different individuals 
— of those who on the whole were inclined to look 
upon the Saviour with favor. There were hearers 
represented by the seed by the way- side, in stony 
places, among thorns, and in good ground. These 
all would seem to be represented by " the kingdom " 
as it was at that time, and before the more formal 
organization of the Christian church, or introduc- 
tion of the Christian dispensation. See Luke 14 : 
25-33. 

Thus understood, a prominent object of the para- 
ble was to inculcate the great doctrine of a church 
to be composed of those only who were personally 
holy. 

Does not this parable as ordinarily understood, 
forbid all discipline in the church? Wheat and 
tares should grow together till the Judgment. 

Matthew 13 : 47-50. 

" The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into 
the sea, and gathered of every kind : (48) Which, when it was 
full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good 
into vessels, but cast the bad away. (49) So shall it be at the 
end of the world : the angels shall come forth, and sever the 
wicked from among the just, (50) And shall cast them into the 
furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 31 

If we are correct in our interpretation of the para- 
ble of the tares, the interpretation of this is very ob- 
vious. The same great truth of so much immediate 
practical importance to the disciples is taught. A 
church is to be gathered on the principle of personal 
religious character. The agency of the kingdom of 
heaven would reach out and affect a great multitude. 
The day was near when the net would be drawn in, 
and while the good would be saved the bad would 
be thrown away. So it would be at the end of the 
dispensation (atclovog). 

Luke 18: 1-8. 

" And lie spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought 
always to pray, and not to faint ; (2) Saying, There was in a city 
a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man : (3) And 
there was a widow in that city ; and she came unto him, saying, 
Avenge me of mine adversary. (4) And he would not for a 
while : but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not 
God, nor regard man, (5) Yet, because this widow troubleth me, 
I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 
(6) And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. (7) 
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night 
unto him, though he bear long with them ? (8) I tell you that he 
will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man 
cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ? " 

These verses should have been connected with the 
preceding chapter, as they are a part of what the Sa- 
viour said of his coming and of the destruction of 
Jerusalem. Let his disciples pray and not faint, nor 
tire of waiting. God would avenge his own elect, 



32 ESCHATOLOGY. 

though he might seem to delay in respect to them. 
He would avenge them speedily. The day was now 
very near when the Son of Man would be "revealed" 
or appear in his kingdom. And although that would 
not lift his disciples into a condition that would ex- 
clude a liability to, and the experience of, persecution ; 
yet they would be the subjects of such an elevation 
of character, and of such large and heavenly expe- 
rience, that they would be able to tread all these ex- 
ternal circumstances of discouragement under their 
feet. They would be conquerors and more than con- 
querors over all the power of the adversary. 

Nevertheless — though these promises were given, 
and though they should soon be fulfilled, and that 
soul ennobling and soul sustaining kingdom be intro- 
duced to the world, — would men, and especially the 
Jews, believe in it, and in its divine Head ? This 
interrogation is equivalent to a negative assertion. 

SUBORDINATE TEXTS. 

As illustrating the principle that the parables ad- 
dressed to the Pharisees and the Jews generally 
" meant them," we ask the reader's attention to the 
following, — though they have not a specific bearing 
on " The coming of the Son of Man." 

Matt. 21 : 28-32. "What think ye 1 A certain man had two sons ; 
and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. 
(29) He answered and said, I will not ; but afterward he repented, and 
went. (30) And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 33 

answered and said, I go, sir; and went not. (31) Whether of them 
twain did the will of his father 1 They say unto him, The first. Jesus 
saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the har- 
lots go into the kingdom of God before you. (32) For John came unto 
you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not ; but the pub- 
licans and the harlots believed him : and ye, when ye had seen it, re- 
pented not afterward, that ye might believe him." 

No one will doubt that this language was aimed 
at the chief priests and the elders (v. 23) then pres- 
ent. As of John, so of the Messiah : the Pharisees 
and those laying claim to especial sanctity — who 
said, " I go sir," rejected him. While those who 
made no pretensions to religious character, and 
whose open and flagrant sins prepared them for easy 
conviction, and — under the influence of his kindness 
and proffered mercy — for repentance, accepted him, 
and were saved. And while the Jews as a nation 
rejected him, the Gentiles would hear and believe 
and become his disciples. 

Verses 33-45. " Hear another parable : There was a certain house- 
holder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and 
digged a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husband- 
men, and went into a far country : (34) And when the time of the fruit 
drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might re- 
ceive the fruits of it. (35) And the husbandmen took his servants, and 
beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. (36) Again, he sent 
other servants more than the first : and they did unto them likewise. 
(37) But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will rever- 
ence my son. (38) But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said 
among themselves, This is the heir ; come, let us kill him, and let us 
seize on his inheritance. (39) And they caught him, and cast him out 
of the vineyard, and slew him.' (40) When the lord therefore of the 
vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen 1 (41 ) They 
say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let 



34 ESCHATOLOGY. 

out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the 
fruits in their seasons. (42) Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read 
in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is be- 
come the head of the corner : this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvel- 
lous in our eyes'? (43) Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God 
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof. (44) And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: 
but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. (45) And 
when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they per- 
ceived that he spake of them." 

It will be admitted by all that this parable had 
reference to the Jews as a nation. The cause of God 
was the " vineyard ; " the Jews the " husbandmen ; " 
the " servants " were " prophets and wise men and 
scribes" (chap. 23: 34) ; "his son" was Jesus Christ; 
the destruction of the husbandmen was the overthrow 
of the Jews and their rejection as the people of God; 
the " other husbandmen " were the Gentiles. " The 
chief priests and Pharisees perceived that he spake 
of tliem" 

Matt. 22: 1-14. "And Jesus answered and spake unto them again 
by parables, and said, (2) The kingdom of heaven is like unto a cer- 
tain king, which made a marriage for his son, (3) And sent forth his 
servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding : and they would 
not come. (4) Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them 
which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and 
my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready ; come unto the marri- 
age. (5) But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his 
farm, another to his merchandise : (6) And the remnant took his ser- 
vants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. (7) But when the 
king heard thereof, he was wroth : and he sent forth his armies, and 
destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. (8) Then saith 
he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden 
were not worthy. (9) Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many 
as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. (10) So those servants went out 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 35 

into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, 
both bad and good : and the wedding was furnished with guests. (11) 
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man winch 
had not on a wedding garment: (1£) And he saith unto him, Friend, 
how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment ? And he was 
speechless. (13) Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand 
and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness ; there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (14) For many are called, but 
few are chosen." 

This parable, like the preceding, had direct and 
pointed reference to the time then passing. This 
great feast was now ready. The Messiah had come, 
and they as Jews were first invited. They rejected 
the blessings of his kingdom and were to be de- 
stroyed. The Gentiles were to be invited and would 
accept, and the wedding would be furnished with 
guests. 

Verses 11—14 were designed to give intensity to 
the idea that the new church of the Messiah was to 
be composed of persons " chosen " on the ground of 
personal holiness. If any one of the " called " had 
come and incorporated himself with the elect, while 
destitute of the personal qualifications, he was, when 
so convicted, to be ejected. The Jew must not rely 
on his nationality. He could not on that ground be 
admitted to the church of the Messiah. And if he 
entered on that principle, he must be cast out and 
numbered with unbelievers, whose end was destruc- 
tion. 

If any doubt to whom this parable was addressed, 



36 ESCHATOLOGY. 

let them read the remainder of the chapter, and es- 
pecially verses 15, 16, 23, 34, 41, and they will learn 
who furnished the occasion for uttering it, and were 
deeply interested and excited hearers. And let them 
then read chap, xxiii. — that fearful, awful chapter. 

And — to recur to the parables of the sower and 
of the tares (chap, xiii.) — let a similar process be 
adopted. Let chap. xii. be read, with special refer- 
ence to the persons present and addressed ; let Jesus 
be followed from the house to the sea-side, where he 
went, the better to accommodate the " great multi- 
tude " desirous to hear him, and who were looking 
not to future generations as to be benefited by the 
instructions of the great Teacher, but to themselves 
and the present, and let it be asked if these parables 
had not a specific application to these hearers, as 
Jews, and Jews to whom the Son of Man had come 
as the Messiah, who were now by him addressed, 
and who were soon as a nation to meet the conse- 
quences of the rejection of his messages. 

Matthew xxiv. 

Few portions of the Scriptures have embarrassed 
commentators more than this. And it is evident that 
few, if any, who have attempted its exegesis, have 
satisfied either themselves or others. Such principles 
of interpretation have been applied to it, as, applied 
to any other book than the Bible, would have been 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 37 

ridiculed and scouted by the literary world. Mr. 
Barnes on verse 3, has the following : " There are 
three questions here : 1st. When those things should 
take place. 2d. What should be the signs of his 
coming. 3d. What should be the signs that the end 
of the world was near. To these questions he [the 
Saviour] replies in this and the following chapters. 
This he does, not by noticing them distinctly, but by 
intermingling the descriptions of the destruction of 
Jerusalem, and of the end of the world ; so that it is 
sometimes difficult to tell to what particular subject 
his remarks apply. The principle on which this com- 
bined description of two events was spoken, appears 
to be that they could be described in the same words, 
and, therefore, the accounts are intermingled."* 



* As another instance of the vagueness of such principles of inter- 
pretation, is the following from Barnes on John 5 : 25. " Verily, veri- 
ly, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they that hear shall live." 

" The hour. The time. 

Is coining. Under the preaching of the Gospel, as well as in the res- 
urrection of the dead. 

Now is. It is now taking place. Sinners were converted under his 
ministry, and brought to spiritual life. 

The dead. Either the dead in sins, or those that are in their graves. 
The language of the Saviour will apply to either. Language, in the 
Scriptures, is often so used as to describe two similar events. Thus the 
destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world are described by 
Jesus in the same language. Matt, xxiv, xxv. The return of the 
Jews from Babylon, and the coming of the Messiah, and the spread of 
his Gospel, are described in the same language by Isaiah. Isa. xl-lxi. 
The renewal of the heart, and the raising of the dead at the judgment, 

4 



38 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Is this true ? Must it be admitted by scholars that 
a principle so indeterminate and unsatisfactory is to 
be applied to the interpretation of the Bible ? If so, 
then we shall be attached to our Bible, not from any 
intellectual conviction of its truths in detail ; but — 
if at all — because there is an atmosphere about it in 
general, that the heart loves, and will love in despite 
of potent elements of repulsion. No man stands 
firm on convictions reached by the application of such 
principles of exegesis. From the nature of the hu- 
man mind it must be so. And that commentators 
are driven to the necessity of admitting them is evi- 



are here also described in similar language — because they so far re- 
semble each other, that the same language will apply to both. 

The voice of the Son of God. The voice is that by which we give com- 
mand. Jesus raised up the dead by his command, or by his authority. 
When he did it he spoke, or commanded it to be done. Mark 5 : 41 ; 
' He took the damsel by the hand, and said, Talitha-cumi.' Luke 7 : 
14 ; ' And he came and touched the bier — and said, Young man, I say 
unto thee, arise.' John 11 : 43; 'He cried with a loud voice, Laza- 
rus, come forth.' So it is by his command that those who are dead in 
sins are quickened, or made alive. (Verse 21.) And so at the day of 
judgment the dead will be raised by his command or voice, though there 
is no reason to think that there his voice will be audibly heard. (Verse 
28.) 

Shall live. Shall be restored to life." 

What, we are ready to ask, is the meaning of John 5 : 25 ? Does it 
imply a moral change, or a physical ? The Saviour is not speaking of 
both at the same time. There is no such necessary connection between 
the renewal of the heart and the raising of the body at the resurrection, 
as that the one cannot be spoken of without at the same time speaking 
of the other. To which is this language of the Saviour to be under- 
stood as referring ? This comment gives no answer. 






SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 39 

dence conclusive that they are in error, and are put- 
ting forced and untruthful constructions upon the 
sacred word. In the attempt to show a more excel- 
lent way, may the Spirit of the Lord pour light upon 
the words of the Saviour, and so show to us the 
thread of truth that we shall find a facile pathway 
along its line. 

The Saviour had just been delivering (chap. 23 : 
32-39) some terrible rebukes to the Scribes and 
Pharisees, and concluded by telling them that the 
Jews were ripe for destruction. The nation had a 
long account to settle. And it must be met by this 
generation. He declared the special divine protec- 
tion withdrawn from them as a nation. Their house 
was left unto them desolate. If blessings were 
henceforth to come upon any of them, it would be 
upon such as should own him as Messiah (v. 39). 

As he left the temple with his disciples — though 
probably not until they were ascending Olivet, 
where the temple and the city would be full in 
view, he remarked, with obvious reference to what 
he had just said to the Jews, " There shall not be 
left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown 
down." This was of course understood by the dis- 
ciples to imply not only the demolition of the city, 
but the overthrow of the nation ; and, as implied in 
such a national catastrophe, the subversion of the 
Jewish religion and the termination of the Mosaic 



40 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Institute. And they would have been prepared to 
put this construction upon his language and these 
facts, from his own previous instruction. The para- 
bles of the tares and of the net, also, were designed 
to teach them this, and they doubtless so understood 
them. And they expected in immediate sequence to 
all this the glories — of which they had but inade- 
quate conceptions — of the kingdom of which their 
Master was to be king. 

They therefore inquire with interest, " When shall 
these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy 
coming and of the end of the dispensation" (aiavog) ? 

Should aixov here be rendered dispensation ? We 
answer unhesitatingly, Yes ; and for the following 
reasons. 

1. The word has obviously this meaning in va- 
rious connections in the New Testament. Aiwv 
signifies primarily a period of time indefinite, only 
as limits are inferred from its adjuncts. As such it 
is used in the Old Testament to render bbis. As 

T 

applied to man, it signifies lifetime. As applied to 
the different forms of religious administration over 
men, as Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christian, its import 
is dispensation. As applied to the endless future of 
man sig rovg aiavag, it may suggest that changes 
without end are before us, each witnessing to de- 
velopments in advance of the past. 

2. The structure of the sentence requires this ren- 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 41 

dering. Nothing could be made more certain by 
the structure of language, than that the coming of 
Christ and the end of the aicov were considered by 
the speaker as synchronical. 

3. The parallel texts demand this construction 
here. In Mark (13: 4) it is, "When shall these 
things be ? and what shall be the sign when all these 
things shall be fulfilled ? " The verb rendered ful- 
filled (cvvrsleio-Oai) is from the same radical elements 
as the noun (awtelsiag) rendered end in Matthew. 
It signifies from the force of the preposition (avv) to 
be brought to one end together — at the same time; 
— forbidding the supposition that the end of one of 
the things about which inquiry is made is to be in 
one age of the world and the other in a different age. 
What then, we ask, are "all these things" that are 
to be brought to their consummation at the same 
time ? Obviously, the things of which the Saviour 
had just spoken, namely, the terrible calamities that 
were to befall the Jews, involving the destruction of 
the city and the nation, and — by necessary conse- 
quence, since church and state were inseparably 
united — the termination of the Mosaic Institute. 
Matthew goes more into specification. Mark em- 
braces all in "these things." So also of Luke (21 : 7). 
Not one word had the Saviour said about the end of 
the world. There was nothing in the circumstances 

that would lead to the mention of that subject. 

4* 



42 ESCHATOLOGY. 

4. The easy and obvious relations of the reply, on 
this hypothesis. This will be seen in the sequel. 

5. We avoid those monstrous principles of inter- 
pretation which strip the Bible of any certain mean- 
ing, and allow men of imaginative minds or de- 
praved hearts to put any construction upon its lan- 
guage they may choose. 

6. Finally, the Bible nowhere else tells us any 
thing about an end of the world, that is, as a physi- 
cal catastrophe. Why then make (jvvrsleia aiavog 
signify that which we have no authority from either 
heaven or earth — the Bible or geology — for believ- 
ing? 

We proceed, then, to the answer of the Saviour to 
the inquiry, When shall these things of which he 
had spoken be, and what shall be the sign of them, 
to wit, of his coming and of the end of the dispen- 
sation. 

The precise day and hour was not revealed : he 
could only say to them that it would be during the 
present generation (vs. 34, 36). 

But the "signs" of the great event would be 
many, and such as to enable the faithful and the 
watchful to escape the evils that would come upon 
their countrymen. These facts that would precede 
the destruction of the city and nation the Saviour 
enumerates. There should be false Christs (v. 5) ; 
wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes (vs. 6, 7) ; 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 43 

the disciples would be persecuted (v. 9) ; professed 
friends would apostatize, and hate and betray their 
brethren (v. 10) ; false teachers would arise and 
mislead many (vs. 11, 12) ; the Gospel would be 
preached to all nations (v. 14) ; and finally a hostile 
army would approach the city (v. 15). This would 
be the signal for the disciples to flee from the city, 
and without the least delay (vs. 16-22). Nor should 
they be dissuaded from their flight by any pretend- 
ing to be Christ — for such there would be (vs. 23- 
28).* These predictions were fulfilled. And the dis- 
ciples, forewarned by this language of the Saviour, 
did, in fact, flee from Jerusalem, and took refuge in 
the city of Pella, and were there in safety. 

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, 
the Jewish state, civil and ecclesiastical, was sub- 
verted (v. 29). Christianity thus became the sole 
divinely authorized Religion in the world. The en- 
thronement of the Son of Man (v. 30) — now the 
Son of God in power (Rom. 1 : 4) became more and 
more apparent. In the employment of an appro- 
priate agency he gathered in his elect from all parts 
of the world, and the Christian church became 
established. 

It is objected that such language as vs. 29, 30, is 



* It is claimed by some, that but one false Christ appeared. We 
cannot know this. 



44 ESCHATOLOGY. 

too awfully significant to have an application to 
such an event as the destruction of a single nation. 
Let the reader turn to Joel 2 : 30, 31, and he will 
find the language of imagery equally bold and 
almost the very same ; and which Peter on the day 
of Pentecost declares applied to the fearful events 
that were to come in sequence of the pouring out 
of the Spirit on that day (Acts 2: 16-21) — the 
very events here predicted. Other instances of the 
use of similar language to denote similar events 
may be found in the prediction of the destruction of 
Babylon (Isa. 13 : 10, 13) — of Idumea (Isa. 34: 4, 
5). It is just such language as a reader of the 
Old Testament would be expected to use in the cir- 
cumstances.* 



* Just as these pages are going to press, we are reading the article of 
Prof. Robinson in his " Tracts and Essays " on Matt. xxiv. We are 
happy to find so very high authority for most of our interpretation of 
this chapter. But, although we dissent from the great learning and 
candor of the Professor with diffidence, we cannot subscribe to some 
of his positions. 

In the first place, we are not satisfied that the language of the 
Saviour should be understood to reach down to the war of Adrian, 
a. d. 135. There is, indeed, a transition period between the Mosaic 
and the Christian Dispensations. It is not very important to fix pre- 
cisely its limits. In some sort the law and the prophets were only 
until John. Then began the process of change. John was preparing 
the way for the Messiah. An important step was taken in that process 
when Christ entered upon his public ministry. And still more, when, 
after his death for the sins of the world, he rose from the dead and 
began the exercise of his functions as a spiritual and unseen Saviour. 
He is then said to be constituted " Son of God in power." Yet his 



SCKIPTURE ARGUMENT. 45 



Matthew xxv. 

The preceding chapter has brought us to the com- 
plete introduction of the Christian Dispensation. 



coming as Son of Man was not consummated till after the events pre- 
dicted in Matt. 24 : 29. Shall we find the terminus of the transition 
period in the year 70 or 135 1 We think the former. There is cer- 
tainly, on a different hypothesis, no inconsiderable strain upon such 
language as " This generation shall not pass, till all these things be ful- 
filled " (24 : 34) ; and " There be some of you standing here, which 
shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his 
kingdom" (16: 28). At the time when the Saviour used this lan- 
guage — whatever may have been true in the days of the Patriarchs, 
and so near to an antediluvian ancestiy, — " generation " could not 
have implied a period of one hundred years and more. Moses placed 
old age at "threescore years and ten" (Ps. 90 : 10). We find it diffi- 
cult to believe that those to whom this language was addressed would 
think of the limit within which the events were to happen as so 
remote. 

Then again, what the Saviour says 24 : 4-18 of the signs of his 
coming, by the knowledge of which his disciples were to flee to a place 
of safety, and did in fact flee and were saved, — thanks from the hearts 
of thousands to the Professor for identifying the place, — all points to 
a. d. 70. The holy city was then burned and the Temple destroyed. 
From that time the Mosaic service was observed in no such manner as 
to entitle it to the name. 

Still our theory in regard to the coming of the Son of Man will not 
be tenacious on this point. It is equally consistent with either hypoth- 
esis of the termination of the transition period. 

Secondly, Professor Eobinson makes a transition from the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem to the General Judgment at 24 : 43. We cannot see 
it thus. Verses 43 seq. have as close a grammatical and logical con- 
nection with what precedes, as have vs. 36-42 with what precedes 
them. The Professor admits that watchfulness with reference to the 
destruction of Jerusalem is inculcated in vs. 36-42. But nothing seems 
to us plainer than that v. 43 stands in closest connection with v. 42. 
" But," c5e, certainly not adversative, but continuative, and " serving 
to introduce something else, .... continuative or explanatory." The 



46 ESCHATOLOGY. 

y 

The Saviour therefore proceeds in this chapter to 

speak of that Dispensation — the principles on which 
it is administered^ and the condition and conduct of 
men under it. This he does from three different 
points of observation — presenting the duties which 
men owe to themselves (vs. 1—13) — to Christ (vs. 
14-30) —to each other (vs. 31-46). 

Verses 1-13. Just before the Saviour left the 
world, he told his disciples (John 14 : 2, 3) that he 
should leave them ; he was going to heaven ; but 



fearful crisis of which he had been speaking, would come as a thief in 
the night. 

And we cannot see, as does Prof. R. the connections of the parallel 
case in Luke (12 : 37-40). The address of which this is a part con- 
tinues to 13 : 9. Peter asks respecting the admonition, if it had or had 
not exclusive application to the disciples (v. 41). That part of the 
answer recorded in vs. 49-53, makes it certain that the day of evil with 
reference to which he was warning them, was of earth and time. It 
was a " fire on earth." The evils were such as man inflicts upon his 
fellow. And v. 56 is specific : " Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face 
of the sky and of the earth ; but how is it that ye do not discern this 
time?" — the time of your national destruction. In chap. 13 : 1 seq. 
allusion was made to the evils that came upon the Galileans Avhose 
blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. The Saviour tells them 
that unless they repent they will perish in like manner, uoavrcog v. 3, 
6//oi(JC v. 5. We would not press these adverbs too hard upon the 
manner rather than the fact ; yet we cannot resist the impression that 
they have so much of the former import as to forbid the supposition 
that the evil threatened was of the future world. The parable of the 
fig-tree in vs. 6-9 points to the destruction of the Jewish nation. 

We think, then, that a transition to a new topic is not made at 
Matt. 24 : 43, — nor elsewhere in these chapters. The train of thought 
is continuous from 24 : 3 to the end of chap. xxv. 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 47 

he would soon come again and take them to himself, 
that they might behold his glory. For a while, he 
would be present with them only to their faith. 
Soon, however, they would experience such a change 
in the mode of being, that he would be subject to 
their immediate recognition; they would know as 
they were known. The allusion is to this fact in the 
parable of the ten virgins. The parable in its pri- 
mary application was to those who had known him 
as the Man Christ Jesus. He was about to leave 
them ; but would soon return, and in circumstances 
of peculiar interest. They must be ready in personal 
character to meet him and to participate with him 
in his glory ; or in default of such personal prepara- 
tion, be cast out. This was in keeping with what 
he had so often said of the Christian church as to 
be organized on the basis of personal holiness in the 
members. 

The conduct of men as subjected to the influence 
of Christianity is also represented. Some, recogniz- 
ing it as a glorious means of salvation, would be 
truly wise, and prepare to meet Christ in heaven. 
Others, knowing indeed that it was such a means 
of salvation, would treat it with a degree of respect, 
and devote some attention to it — but lack the es- 
sential element of a true preparation. And this not 
from positive hostility, but from sheer neglect. So 
is it in fact with multitudes to whom the Gospel is 



48 ESCHATOLOGY. 

addressed. They perish from sheer neglect. There 
are, in the essential nature of things, conditions of 
salvation ; they do not comply with them : subjec- 
tive elements of character indispensable ; they do 
not possess them. 

In v. 13 the words " wherein the Son of man 
cometh " are to be considered as not genuine. Dr. 
Clarke has the following : " These words are omitted 
by many excellent MSS., most of the versions, and 
several of the Fathers. Griesbach has left them out 
of the text ; Grotius, Hammond, Mill, and Bengel, 
approve of the omission." Knapp marks these 
words as " sine dubio spuria." Rosenmueller omits 
them. Kuinoel says that most of the manuscripts 
and versions of highest authority, as also the Fa- 
thers, omit ; but adds, " Sensus tamen idem manet " 
(the sense remains the same) — which is very far 
from true. The coming of the Son of Man is not 
represented in this parable. It is the TtctQovoca rov 
xvqiov, the Coming of the Lord. 

Verses 14-30. The parable of the talents repre- 
sents men as the agents of Christ, to whom are com- 
mitted his interests ; and as rewarded of him for 
their fidelity. This parable covers the ground occu- 
pied by the church as the official agency addressed 
by the commission, " Disciple all nations," " Preach 
the gospel to every creature." Here again, as in the 



SCKIPTUEE AKGUMENT. 49 

parable of the virgins, the Lord is for a time away. 
But he comes at death and settles with his servants. 
So, too, in this, neglect is ruin. Not to do is death. 
This too, like the preceding parable, had a special 
or primary application to those whom he addressed. 
The lord was with the servants, but was to " go 
away." So Christ was, when he uttered this, " with" 
the disciples and friends, but was to go away and 
" come again." In this particular it was applicable 
only to the generation then living. 

Verses 31-46. These verses are of a mixed char- 
acter, partly descriptive and partly parabolic — like 
the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The 
opening sentence is figuratively descriptive. " "When 
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the 
holy angels with him," that is, when he shall have 
been invested with the functions of Messiahship, 
" then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory," or 
his glorious throne ; that is, he will be invested with 
supreme and absolute authority as " Head over all 
things." " All nations " shall be amenable to him, 
and receive their destiny at his hands, and on a 
principle that may be illustrated by the scene which 
follows as of a King on his throne giving a verdict 
as to his subjects. Yet even in this parabolic scene 
the reader is reminded most impressively that the 
King is Christ himself, by the language, " Come ye 

5 



50 ESCHATOLOGY. 

blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world." 

The generic principle at the basis of this parable, 
is, that we shall be called to an account for our 
treatment of our fellow men ; and especially our 
treatment of Christians, love to whom as such, or 
its opposite, is essentially love or its opposite to 
Christ. So that now — as it will be in the future 
judgment — the spirit we manifest towards Chris- 
tians is the true index of our feelings towards him. 

These verses are no otherwise descriptive of the 
day of Judgment, than is the parable of the talents, 
or that of the virgins. Each represents a principle 
on which that judgment will proceed ; and that is 
all. The opening sentence, " When the Son of man 
shall come in his glory," does not refer to a future 
judgment, but to his investiture with the office of 
Messiahship. The fact of a judgment after death, 
and that it will be before Jesus Christ is most sol- 
emnly and impressively taught. 

The following from Neander is entitled to and 
will receive careful attention from all who know his 
great intellectual and moral worth : " On the whole, 
then, we are not to look upon this representation as 
a picture of the final judgment. Its aim is to set 
forth most vividly and impressively the great and 
fundamental truth, that no faith but that which 
proves itself by works, can secure the kingdom of 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 51 

heaven. We cannot fail to see in the ' throne/ the 
' right hand,' the 'left hand/ &c, a figurative 
drapery attending and setting off the one funda- 
mental thought The form of description, then, 

we suppose to be parabolical, and its character in 
this respect was probably still more obvious when 
Christ delivered it." — Life of Christ, p. 375. 

Matt. 26 : 63, 64. 

" The high-priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by 
the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the 
Son of God. (64) Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said : never- 
theless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man 
sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of 
heaven." 

" Nevertheless ; " 7zh' t v, moreover, besides. " Here- 
after ; " cmuQii, henceforth. 

This text is significant as showing the difference 
between the designations " Son of Man " and " Son 
of God." The Son cf God was the Son of Man 
glorified and invested with the functions of Messiah- 
ship. When interrogated whether he were the Son 
of God he admitted that he was, but with the quali- 
fication that he was about to be exalted to the right 
hand of power. He was the personage that was just 
to be the Son of God. The high-priest did not, in 
putting the question, make this distinction, but de- 
signed merely to ask if he was the promised Messiah. 
And it was to this question that Jesus answered yes, 



52 ESCHATOLOGY. 

— and the subsequent remark was demanded by the 
incorrect language of the interrogator. "When Na- 
thanael, early in the ministry of Christ, avowed his 
belief in him as the Son of God, the King of Israel, 
he commended his faith, but referred him to the meth- 
ods of glorification which God would employ to con- 
stitute and manifest him such. He would " see 
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and 
descending upon the Son of man." John 1 : 49-51. 
The parallel text in Luke is still more emphatic as 
to the immediate sequence to the present transac- 
tions, of his full investiture with the character of the 
Son of God. The expression is ano xov vvv (literally 
from now, i. e. immediately and henceforth), shall the 
Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of 
God (Luke 22: 69). This points to the fact that the 
Son of Man became the Son of God when he rose 
from the dead (^ dvaaxdoeag, Rom. 1: 4). When he 
had purged our sin, he sat down on the right hand of 
God. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE COMING OF THE LORD. 

" The Coming of the Lord," as has been said in 
the preceding chapter, is by no means to be con- 
founded with " The Coming of the Son of Man." 
The latter we have attempted to define and explain. 
The former now claims attention. 

No writer, so far as we have been able to discover, 
has made this distinction. The two forms of ex- 
pression have been regarded as equivalent, and both 
alike as referring to " the end of the world " — by 
which has been understood the termination of the 
human race on the earth, and a general catastrophe 
of the globe. A dissent from the unanimous exe- 
getical and theological past and present, is certainly 
to be made with diffidence and humility. And the 
writer has been ready often to say of himself that he 
must be wrong because alone. But he can find no- 
where else a foundation on which to stand with the 
great principles of language and of logic his support. 

5* (53) 



54 ESCHATOLOGY. 

" Let God be true." Magna est Veritas, et praevale- 
bit. 

To us this distinction seems not only to lie on the 
face of the Gospels and the Epistles, but, when once 
admitted, to possess a magic power that removes the 
innumerable and insurmountable obstacles, that have 
been in the way of the satisfactory explanation of 
the language of the Scriptures on this subject. Every 
reader of commentary or theology knows what forced 
constructions have been resorted to, and with what 
unsatisfactory results. The general subject has been 
regarded as emphatically the region of mist and 
clouds. Positiveness has had no place here. All has 
been conjectural and doubtful. And the mist and 
obscurity that has been so abundant here, has spread 
itself over every thing that lies contiguous. As one 
of the most recent and thoroughly elaborated works 
illustrating these remarks, we refer the reader to Stier's 
« Words of the Lord Jesus." See especially his com- 
mentary on Matthew xxiv. and xxv, Vol. III. pp. 
244 seq. And commentators in general, so far as 
we have had opportunity to observe, employ such 
language as — "Probably the writer meant," — "Per- 
haps he may refer," — "If this be his meaning," &c. 
They never speak with the confidence which clear 
and well-defined views inspire. 



THE APOSTLES IN ERROR. 55 



THE APOSTLES "IN EREOE." 

More than this. It is a conviction very common 
that the Apostles were in error. The more frank 
and out-spoken admit this in so many words : while 
others less open-hearted say the same thing, though 
indirectly and with more or less of ambiguity. As 
belonging to these classes are such illustrious names 
as Locke, Watts, Jonathan Edwards, Barnes, Cony- 
be are, Olshausen, Arnold, Bush, Hudson. 

We think this a matter of such importance as to 
justify a somewhat extended reference. 

The following is from " An Essay towards a 
Proof of a Separate State of Souls between Death 
and the Resurrection," by Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. 

" I might yet take occasion from this objection to 
give a further reason, why the Apostles more fre- 
quently draw their motives of hope and fear from 
the Resurrection and the Great Judgment ; that is, 
that even that day of recompense was generally then 
supposed to be near at hand, and so there was less 
need to insist upon the joys and sorrows of the 
separate state. 

" . . . . The Christians of the first age did gen- 
erally expect the second coming of Christ to judg- 
ment, and the resurrection of the dead, in that very 
age wherein it was foretold, St. Paul gives us a 



56 ESCHATOLOGY. 

hint of it in 2 Thess. 2 : 1, 2. They supposed that 
the day of the Lord was just appearing. And many 
expressions of Christ concerning his return, or com- 
ing again after his departure, seem to represent his 
absence as a thing of no long continuance. It is 
true these words of his may partly refer to his com- 
ing to destroy Jerusalem, and the coming in of his 
kingdom among the Gentiles ; or his coming by his 
messenger of death; yet they generally, in their 
supreme and final sense, point to his coming to raise 
the dead, and judge the world. And from the words 
of Christ, also, concerning John, chap. 21 : 22, ' If I 
will that he tarry till I come,' it is probable that the 
Apostles themselves at first, as well as other Chris- 
tians, might derive this apprehension of his speedy 
coming. 

" It is certain, that when Christ speaks of his 
coming in general and promiscuous and parabolical 
terms, whether with regard to the destruction of 
Jerusalem or the judgment of the world, he saith, 
Matt. 24 : 34, ' Verily I say unto you, this genera- 
tion shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.' 
And the Apostles frequently told the world, the com- 
ing of the Lord was near ; Phil. 4:5 

" . . . . These expressions had plainly such an 
influence on the primitive Christians, as that they 
imagined the day of resurrection and judgment was 
very near : and since the prophetical words of Christ 



THE APOSTLES IN EEEOR. 57 

and his Apostles seemed to carry this appearance in 
them and to keep the church under some uncertainty, 
it is no wonder that the Apostles chiefly referred the 
disciples of that age to the day of their resurrection 
for comfort under their sufferings and sorrows. And 
though they never asserted that Christ would come 
to raise the dead and judge the world in that age, 
yet when they knew themselves that he would not 
come so soon, they might not think it necessary to give 
every Christian or every church an immediate account 
of the more distant time of this great event, that the 
uncertainty of it might keep them ever watchful. And 
even when St. Paul informs the Thessalonians that 
the day of the Lord was not so very near as they 
imagined it, 2 Thess. 2 : 2, yet he does not put it off 
beyond that century by any express language. 

" Thus we see there is very good reason why the 
New Testament should derive its motives of terror 
and comfort chiefly from the Resurrection and the 
Day of Judgment." pp. 79-83. 

From this it appears that Dr. Watts did not sup- 
pose the Apostles themselves, at the time of writing, 
to have been in error as to the time of the coming of 
the Lord ; but that their disciples and the early 
Christians misunderstood their language, and sup- 
posed that event very near; and that the Apostles 
permitted them to remain in this error from design, 
that they might find encouragement and support in 



58 ESCHATOLOGY. 

their trials, from the belief — what was not true — 
that the glories of the kingdom of Christ were very- 
near. This is worse than to suppose the Apostles 
in error. It is to convert them into Jesuits, and to 
make them the perpetrators of " pious fraud ! " 

What else but to impute this motive — with rever- 
ence be it spoken — to Jesus Christ himself, is the 
import of the following language of the celebrated 
commentator now being brought to the notice of 
our country ? 

" The mode of expression here (vs. 34 and 36) 
adopted is the only one that can be conceived of, as 
suited to the circumstances of the case. For had 
the Redeemer intended to say that his coming was 
yet very distant, such a statement would have entirely 
destroyed the ethical import of the prophecy, namely, 
the incitement to watchfulness which it was designed 
to produce ; and if, on the other hand, he had so 
expressed himself as to say nothing at all about the 
time when these things would come to pass, this 
total silence would have been no less paralyzing in 
its influence. But the representation given by the 
Lord was so framed as to act in a twofold way: 
first, to keep before the mind the constant possibility 
of his coming, and, secondly, to show the impossi- 
bility of fixing upon a precise period; the former 
object was accomplished by verse 34, the latter by 
verse 36." — Olshausen, Commentary on Matthew, 24 : 
36. 



THE APOSTLES IN ERROR. 59 

" Such a statement " — a statement of the simple 
truth — " would have entirely destroyed the ethical 
import of the prophecy, namely, the incitement to 
watchfulness which it was designed to produce ! ! " 
The Redeemer then " designed " to produce a state 
of mind which could not be produced by the truth — 
which truth " would have entirely destroyed." Even 
" silence would have been no less paralyzing in its 
influence." His disciples must live under a belief, 
erroneous, of "the constant possibility of his com- 
ing." 

But what is to become of us of this day, whose 
is the misfortune to know that a long period, even a 
" millennium " is yet before the world and the 
church ? " The ethical import " aforesaid is to us 
" entirely destroyed." We are so unfortunate as to 
be dispossessed of the salutary error that " the end 
of the world " is or may be near. There is to us no 
" constant possibility " of it. 

Is there not " a more excellent way " of interpret- 
ing the language of the Saviour in Matt, xxiv, and 
can we not attribute to him motives that shall in 
higher degree redound to his glory and elevate him 
in the hearts of the children of men ? 

The following from Conybeare is characteristic of 
the man. He frankly says in plain words what he 
thinks. 

" It will be remembered that a subject on which 



60 ESCHATOLOGY. 

he had especially dwelt while he was at Thessalon- 
ica, and to which he [Paul] had also alluded in his 
first Epistle, was the second advent of our Lord. 
We know that our Saviour himself had warned 
his disciples that < of that day and that hour knoweth 
no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but the 
Father only ; ' and we find these words remarkably 
fulfilled by the fact that the early church, and even 
the Apostles themselves, expected their Lord to come 
again in that very generation. St. Paul himself 
shared in that expectation, but being under the guid- 
ance of the Spirit of Truth, he did not deduce any 
erroneous conclusions from this mistaken premise. 
Some of his disciples, on the other hand, inferred 
that if indeed the present world were so soon to 
come to an end, it was useless to pursue their com- 
mon earthly employments any longer. They forsook 
their work, and gave themselves up to dreamy ex- 
pectations of the future ; so that the whole frame- 
work of society in the Thessalonian church was in 
danger of dissolution." — Life and Epistles of St. 
Paul, Vol. I. p. 401. 

If Paul did not " deduce any erroneous conclu- 
sions," he made an erroneous statement on a most 
important question of fact ; and others might draw, 
as a legitimate " conclusion," erroneous practical 
inferences, as " some of his disciples " did. We 
know nothing of the errors of Paul, except as we 



THE APOSTLES IN ERROR. 61 

learn them from his writings. If these are errone- 
ous, what becomes of the doctrine of the inspiration 
of the Epistles ? 

Dr. Thomas Arnold of Rugby, whose theological 
writings are now attracting attention, says directly 
that Paul " expected that the world would come to an 
end in the generation then existing." — Sermons on 
the Christian Life, Course, 8fc, p. 400. 

Rev. Albert Barnes in his " Commentary " on 1 
Cor. 15 : 51, says, " I do not know that the proper 
doctrine of inspiration suffers, if we admit that the 
Apostles were ignorant of the exact time when the 
world would close ; or even that in regard to the 
precise period when that would take place, they 
might be in error" 

Now the statement in the abstract that inspired 
writers were not omniscient, or that on some points, 
where their inspiration did not extend, they might 
be in error, is very harmless. No doubt the sacred 
writers were as ignorant as other men, what would 
be the weather on the morrow ; no doubt they often 
had opinions on this subject that the morrow proved 
to have been erroneous. But the above remarks are 
made in reply to the objection, " that Paul expected 
to live until the Lord Jesus should return ; that he 
therefore expected that the world would soon end, 
and that in this he was mistaken and could not be 
inspired." The " error " referred to, therefore, is on 

6 



62 ESCHATOLOGY. 

this point ; and it is " error " found in his writings 
on this subject, and is the reason why he says 
u We " and not " They," — " error " in the Bible. 
And it is the error of Paul and others of the Apos- 
tles expressed in the Bible on the subject of the end 
of the world and the judgment as near, to which the 
language " they might be in error " refers. This is 
an admission of fearful import in its bearings upon 
our confidence in the Book of — shall I say inspira- 
tion ? What part of it is inspired, and what not ? 
If the Apostles might be in error on this point, they 
might be on any and every other. And " The 
Book " becomes a book. 

President Edwards has the following : " Consid- 
ering the scope of the Apostle in these verses (1 
Thess. 4 : 15-17), all that can be inferred from such 
a manner of speaking, is, that it might, for aught 
was then revealed, be while they lived. For the 
scope of the Apostle was to comfort the Thessalo- 
nians concerning their friends that were already 
dead, with the consideration, that they should surely 
meet them again, at the day of the Lord's coming. 
And therefore, it was most proper and natural for 
the Apostle to speak of them in the third person. 
And it is but just to suppose, that it was only the 
uncertainty of the time, that was the ground of the 
Apostle's using such a manner of expression ; be- 
cause he, in this very context, speaks of the time as 



THE APOSTLES IN ERROR. 63 

altogether uncertain." — Works, Vol. VII. pp. 221, 
222. 

President Edwards does not here attribute posi- 
tive error to the Apostle ; but considers him ignorant. 
Paul supposed the day of the Lord might come 
during the then present generation. And he adjusts 
his language to this hypothesis. His object was to 
comfort the Thessalonians who were then living, in 
respect to their friends who had died. They would 
meet them in the day of judgment, and it might 
come " while they lived." Had the Apostle known 
the truth, he would not, of course, have adminis- 
tered the comfort to be found in the supposition that 
it might come soon. Here, then, was comfort from 
an erroneous hypothesis, which the truth would 
have destroyed. Here, then, is " error " — the error 
that the day of judgment might come during the 
lifetime of that generation. Our venerable author 
expresses himself with hesitation and reserve ; yet 
does in fact admit it. 

But the language of the Apostle implies more than 
the possibility that the day would then come. Why 
does he not say, " Then they who are alive, will not 
prevent us who are asleep ? " That the order of the 
pronouns is inverted implies that the Apostle expected 
that the day would come when " we " — the people 
then alive — were in the world. He, in fact, does say 
this — not as an expectation or possibility, but as a 
fact, uttered by inspiration. 



64 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Mr. Locke's opinion may be learned from the fol- 
lowing extract from Barnes's Notes, 2 Cor. 5 : 2. 
" Mr. Locke has given an interpretation of this in 
which he is probably alone, but which has so much 
appearance of plausibility that it is not improper to 
refer to it. He supposes that this whole passage has 
reference to the fact that at the coming of the Re- 
deemer the body will be changed without experienc- 
ing death (comp. 1 Cor. 15: 51, 52) ; that Paul ex- 
pected that this might soon occur; and that he earnestly 
desired to undergo this transformation without expe- 
riencing the pains of dying. He therefore para- 
phrases it, ' For in this tabernacle I gr®an, earnestly 
desiring, without putting off this mortal, earthly body 
by death, to have that celestial body superinduced, if 
so be the cominsr of Christ shall overtake me in this 
life, before I put off this body.' " 

The following is from Barnes on 1 Cor. 1: 7. 
"Waiting for. Expecting, or looking for this coming 
with glad and anxious desire. This was, certainly, 
one of the endowments to which he referred, to wit, 
that they had grace given them earnestly to desire, 
and to wait for the second appearing of the Lord 
Jesus 

" The coming, &c. Gr. The revelation — (tyv dno- 
xdlv-wiv) — the manifestation of the Son of God. 
That is, waiting for his return to judge the world, 
and for his approbation of his people in that day. 



THE APOSTLES IN EKROR. 65 

The earnest expectation of the Lord Jesus became one 
of the marks of early Christian piety. This return 
was promised by the Saviour to his anxious disci- 
ples, when he was about to leave them. John 14 : 
3. The promise was renewed when he ascended to 
heaven. Acts 1 : 11. It became the settled hope and 
expectation of Christians that he would return. Tit. 
2 : 13. 2 Pet. 3 : 12. Heb. 9 : 28. And with the ear- 
nest prayer that he would quickly come, John closes 
the volume of inspiration. Rev. 22 : 20, 21." 

To us nothing can seem more absurd than for a 
Christian to be expecting and looking for with glad 
and anxious desire — to have the settled hope and 
expectation, and to pray for the speedy occurrence of 
an event which it is known cannot happen till thou- 
sands of years afterward. He may believe in such 
an occurrence, but he is not tvaiting for it. And 
when Mr. Barnes represents it as the settled hope 
and expectation of Christians that Christ was soon 
to " return to judge the world," and quotes Tit. 2 : 
13. 2 Pet. 3 : 12, and Heb. 9 : 28, showing that he 
includes the Apostles — indeed he refers by name to 
John — is it not a necessary implication that the 
Apostles were in error, — that they acted out^ and re- 
corded as a part of the Bible, that error ? 

On Titus 2 : 13, " Looking for that blessed hope 
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ," Barnes has the following : 

6* 



66 ESCHATOLOGY. 

" Looking for. Expecting ; waiting for. That is, in 
the faithful performance of our duties to ourselves, 
to our fellow-creatures, and to God, we are patiently 
to wait for the coming of our Lord. (1.) We are to 
believe that he will return ; (2.) we are to be in a 
posture of expectation, not knowing when he will 
come ; and (3.) we are to be ready for him whenever 
he shall come. See Notes on Matt. 24: 42-44. 1 
Thess. 5:4. Phil. 3:20. 

" That blessed hope. The fulfilment of that hope 
so full of blessedness to us. 

" The glorious appearing. Notes, 2 Thess. 2 : 8. 
Comp. 1 Tim. 6 : 14. 2 Tim. 1 : 10. 4:1, 8. 

" Of the great God. There can be little doubt, if 
any, that by i the great God ' here, the Apostle re- 
ferred to the Lord Jesus, for it is not a doctrine of 
the New Testament that God himself as such, or in 
contradistinction from his incarnate Son, will appear 
at the last day." 

Here again we are to be waiting and in the pos- 
ture of expectation, not knowing when he will come. 
Did not Paul know that the career of Christianity 
was not to be complete in that generation ? If he 
did not, we know that a long course of years is yet 
to be run. There is to be a " millennium." And 
this entire class of texts can have no application to 
us. We are not and cannot be said to be wait- 
ing for the " end of the world." And if the early 



THE APOSTLES IN ERROR. 67 

Christians were, it was because they were " in 
error." 

Hudson, a very rigid exegete, is embarrassed in his 
attempts to harmonize the common theory of the 
Resurrection and the language of the Bible. His 
straightforwardness compels him to speak as fol- 
lows : 

" ' Ye shall be rewarded at the resurrection of the 
just,' is the promise of our Saviour. And on this 
event Paul, with the Gospel of ' Jesus and the Res- 
urrection,' seems to have fixed his hopes (Rom. 8 : 
23. 1 Cor. 6 : 14. 15 : 12-55. 2 Cor. 4 : 14. 5:2-4. 
Eph. 2 : 6. Phil. 3 : 10-13, 20, 21. Col. 2 : 12, 13. 
1 Thess. 4 : 14-18. 5 : 23. 2 Thess. 1 : 7. 2 Tim. 4 : 
8). When the event would occur no one knew ; 
but it was expected soon (1 Tim. 6 : 14. 2 Tim. 4 : 8. 
Tit. 2 : 13. Jas. 5 : 7, 8. 2 Pet. 1 : 16)." —Doctrine of 
a Future Life, p. 255. 

By whom was it " expected soon? " By the Apos- 
tles, of course, as will be seen by the references, which 
are to the language of the Apostles as expressing 
their own views. 

We select the following from Olshausen : 1 Thess. 
4 : 15. " 'HpeTg ol Qovrsg, we who hope to continue to 
live until the advent of Christ. It is unmistakably 
clear from this that Paul deemed it possible that he 
and his contemporaries might live to see the coming 
again of Christ That it has continued unful- 



68 ESCHATOLOGY. 

filled, this hope of Paul's, is no doubt true All 

the writers of the New Testament considered Christ's 
advent as near (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52. 1 Pet. 4: 7. 1 John 
2 : 18. James 5 : 8), in fact the whole doctrine would 
not have the slightest significance, unless the longing 
after the second coming of Christ were each moment 
alive, and therefore continually deemed possible. 

" It was only towards the end of his life (Phil. 1 : 
23) that Christ's advent retreated, in Paul's mind, to 
a remoter distance." " The Apostle towards the end 
of his life, no longer considers the coming of Christ 
as so near at hand, that he hoped to live yet to see 
it." 

It seems then that all the writers of the New Tes- 
tament considered Christ's advent as near, and sup- 
posed they and their contemporaries might live to see 
it. Indeed the whole doctrine would not have had 
the slightest significance or "ethical import," had 
the truth in relation to it been known. The " long- 
ing after " it must proceed on the hypothesis that it 
may come at any time, or it would have no salutary 
moral bearing. But that " longing " could live only 
on error ! " Sanctify them through " — error ! " Thy 
word is " — error ! 

"We introduce the following statement from Pro- 
fessor Stuart : " Tholuck, and most of the late com- 
mentators in Germany, suppose that the apostle ex- 
pected the speedy advent of Christ upon earth a 



THE APOSTLES IN ERROR. 69 

second time, when the day of glory to the church 
would commence. Accordingly, they represent him, 
here and elsewhere, as exhorting Christians to be on 
the alert, constantly expecting the approach of such 
a day. In support of this view, Tholuck appeals 
to Phil. 4 : 5. 1 Thess. 5 : 2, 6. Rev. 22 : 12. Such 
views, and such a mode of representation, seem at 
present to be widely diffused in Germany." — Com- 
mentary on Romans 13 : 11. 

These extracts are from men of eminent talent. 
And for the very reason that they are such, they thus 
speak. It is the only inference that a rigid logic can 
draw from their premises. And they who are the 
most unequivocal and explicit, evince the most can- 
dor, and the control in highest degree, of the true 
principles of interpretation. There is no escape from 
this conclusion, if the premises are conceded. These 
premises are that "the Coming of the Son of Man," 
and " the Coming of the Lord " are the same ; and 
that with these " the end of the world," " the Judg- 
ment," and " the Resurrection," are associate events ; 
and that by the end of the world (auav) is meant the 
physical catastrophe. This conceded, and it must 
be that the Apostles expected the great event in 
their day. If this be not so, then we know nothing 
of the opinions of the Apostles and of the Saviour 
by what he or they have said. We admire the cour- 
age of such men as have given a frank utterance to 



70 ESCHATOLOGY. 

a meaning, which the application of their own prin- 
ciples must of necessity find in the language of the 
Bible. The caution and reserve with which some 
writers utter this same belief, show that they were 
not satisfied with their own findings, nor with the 
principles by which they were led, or rather driven to 
them. We wonder that they did not throw away at 
once, both their conclusions and their premises, and 
enter upon an original investigation of the Sacred 
Volume. 

"We have made these quotations at such length 
and in such numbers, that our readers may see dis- 
tinctly what is the necessary implication of the com- 
mon theory of the Coming of the Lord. The great- 
est and the best of men are driven upon the painful 
conclusion that the Apostles were in error — a con- 
clusion that takes along with it, of necessity, the 
doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible — save in a 
sense qualified, vague, and, to the good man who 
for his eternal interests would find a basis of stabil- 
ity, most unsatisfactory. 

We have hoped by these extracts to produce in 
our readers a degree of doubt in relation to the 
common methods of interpreting the Scriptures on 
this subject, that shall prepare them for an impartial 
examination of a different theory. Opinions sus- 
tained by the voice of antiquity and the names of 
the great and good, stand by authority. They are 



THE APOSTLES IN ERKOR. 71 

assumed to be correct almost of course. While of 
opinions that conflict with them, the presumption is 
that they must be wrong. It ought to be so. It is 
so by a law of our nature. That it is so, is a ground 
of hope for the truth and its triumphs. Yet this, 
like many things else that are good, may be in ex- 
cess. " To err is human." Nought but the Bible 
is to be assumed as certainly right. And when we 
see opinions connected to such logical sequences, as 
we find in these quotations, and which we ourselves 
can see are legitimate and necessary, we should 
pause and listen, with candor and a heart ready for 
conviction, to any attempt to find a more excellent 
way. Let us remember the words of the pastor of 
the Pilgrims when he bade them farewell, " I am 
verily persuaded, I am very confident the Lord has 
more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word;" 
— the words of Vinet, " Even now, after eighteen 
centuries of Christianity, we may be involved in 
some enormous error, of which the Christianity of 
the future will make us ashamed;" — those of Dr. 
Woods, " All our endeavors to arrive at a more per- 
fect knowledge of the Scriptures imply, that hitherto 
they have been understood but imperfectly ; " — of 
Prof. Stuart, " The time is coming when all the dark 
places of the Bible will be elucidated." 

Our theory of what is implied in " The coming of 
the Son of Man," has carried us through the gospels, 



72 ESCHATOLOGY. 

without, as we think our readers will say, the slight- 
est difficulty. All has seemed plain and obvious 
and relevant. We will hope to find the same facile 
exegesis of what in the subsequent portions of the 
New Testament is said of the " Coming of the Lord." 
And we think we shall find, that in making these 
two forms of expression refer to different and quite 
dissimilar events, we are not making a distinction 
without a difference. We would ourselves as soon 
attempt a commentary on the New Testament on 
the hypothesis that " the law of Moses " and " the 
gospel of Christ " were equivalent and interchange- 
able phrases. And we think we could accomplish 
our task with as little occasion for ingenuity in 
inventing theories, and with as little strain upon the 
laws of language or of logic. And we think also 
that we should be driven by a no more inexorable 
necessity upon the conclusion that the Apostles 
were in error. 



DESTEUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND OVER- 
THROW OF THE JEWS. 

It may in this connection be proper, as introduc- 
tory to the general subject of the chapter, to refer 
to the fact that by the Coming of the Lord — in 
some instances, certainly of the use of this language 
in the Epistles — is understood by some, the destruc- 



DESTEUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 73 

tion of Jerusalem in the providence of God. This 
interpretation is especially given of James 5 : 7, 8, 
where the Coming is to be waited for with patience 
and is said to be near. It is supposed that by the 
overthrow and the dispersion of the Jews they 
would have less power to act as persecutors; and 
also that the fact would be followed by the more 
rapid extension of the Christian religion. But it 
should be remembered that the Apostle is addressing 
the Jews that were "scattered abroad" in different 
countries ; and that the persecutions which they are 
exhorted to bear patiently, were persecutions which 
the more wealthy of their own people, who were 
with them in foreign countries, inflicted upon their 
poorer brethren.* How would these Jews, " Par- 
thians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, 
.... in parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers 
of Rome," be so much affected by what should 
happen at Jerusalem? Jews, they would be Jews 
still, and true to their instincts as such, they would 
many of them be rich, and being rich, oppress their 
poor brethren. That the destruction of Jerusalem, 
then, should be spoken of in language so general 



* Read the Epistle with this thought in mind, especially 1:1, 9-11. 
2: 1-16. 3 : 1, 13-18. 4 : 13. 5:6, 9. Observe such places as "one 
another," 4:11. 5 : 9, 16 ; — "among you," 1 : 26. 3 : 13. 4:1. 5 : 13 ; 
— "any of you," 1:5. 2: 16 

7 



74 ESCHATOLOGY. 

and applicable to all, as the great fact that should 
put an end to their trials, and bring them into the 
realization of all their largest hopes, is utterly in- 
credible. 

Besides, the use of this phraseology is not con- 
fined to James when addressing Jews. Paul uses 
it when writing to Gentile churches. And even 
here, too, the same explanation is attempted. But 
"what was the destruction of Jerusalem to the Thes- 
salonians or the Corinthians ? The Christian Dis- 
pensation, so far as they were concerned, was com- 
pletely introduced. Christ was glorified — exalted 
Head over all things to the church, and dispensing 
his Spirit and all the gifts of his gracious system. 
Whatever, therefore, might befall the distant, and, 
politically considered, very unimportant province of 
the Roman Empire, was of little moment to them. 
This, then, is an utterly forced construction, and 
resorted to only from necessity. 



"COMING OF THE LOKD." 

It will, we suppose, be conceded by all, that what- 
ever is meant by " The Coming of the Lord " — 
TtaQovaia rov kvqiov, literally the being present of the 
Lord — the same is implied in such phrases as " The 
appearing of Jesus Christ " (1 Tim. 6 : 14) ; " The 
revelation of Jesus Christ" ( 1 Pet. 1 : 13) ; « The 



COMING OF THE LORD. 75 

day of the Lord' Jesus " (Phil. 1:6); " The great 
day " (Jude 6) ; " The lasl; day " (John 12 : 48) ; 
"That day" (2 Tim. 1:12); "The day" (1 Cor. 
3 : 13) ; also that with it the Resurrection and the 
Judgment are synchronical or associate. 

What is the great fact or group of facts referred 
to by the phrase^ The Coming of the Lord ? It has 
its definite, primary import, also is used to suggest 
some incident or incidents of the primary fact. 

These facts in general are those of importance 
that are connected with the death of the body. And 
this 1 phrase presents these facts as viewed from the 
stand-point of faith, and not as they appear from 
the stand-point of earth and sense. It represents 
the important elements that enter into the case; 
while those which are almost exclusively regarded 
by those without faith, and made too prominent by 
those of feeble faith, are not included. 

"When the present mode of existence ends, another 
succeeds, in which, in a method not known to us 
now, we shall have a power of perceiving spiritual 
beings, and especially of recognizing Christ, that will 
be as impressive, as influential upon our practical 
convictions, as is now the sense of sight. The 
Saviour will appear. So of the angels and the spir- 
its of just men made perfect. So of all the realities 
of the spiritual world. Then, too, will terminate the 
educational and probationary processes of this life, 



76 ESCHATOLOGY. 

and an order of consequences commence from that 
time. To the saints it will be heaven. Hence it is 
said to be the " revelation " of salvation (1 Pet. 1 : 
5), the " day of redemption " (Eph. 4 : 30), &c. To 
the wicked it will be hell. Hence it is called the 
" day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judg- 
ment of God " (Rom. 2:5). So, too, as death is a 
transition from the animal to the spiritual body, the 
"change" (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52. Phil. 3: 20, 21) or in- 
vestiture (2 Cor. 5 : 2-4) is associated with the 
Coming of the Lord. 

The " Coming of the Lord," then, is not merely 
a periphrasis for death. It is rather significant of a 
great fact or group of facts in the history of man, in 
connection with which, but of relative insignificance, 
is death. The termination of animal life, and con- 
sequently of the relations of our physical being, is 
among the conditions of the exercise of those higher 
functions by which Christ is seen as he is.* 

SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 

"Will the Scriptures sustain us in the position we 
have now assumed ? " To the law and to the testi- 
mony." 



* It will be convenient, as a means of dispensing with oft-repeated 
circumlocutions, to anglicize irapovaca. The reader will then under- 
stand by Parousia the " Coming of the Lord," as above defined. 



SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 77 

Just before the Saviour left the world, he told his 
disciples that he was about to be glorified ; that this 
implied his departure from them ; and that they 
could not then follow him (John 13 : 31-33). To 
mitigate the sorrow which this announcement gave 
them, he added, Let not your heart be troubled. 
You believe in God. Though unseen you believe in 
his presence and power to bless. You have faith 
in God. Henceforth have faith in me as you have 
faith in God. Though unseen, I shall be with you 
to bless you. And further, I am going to prepare a 
place for you, and will soon come and take you to 
myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 
This, Thomas understood literally. The Saviour 
corrects the mistake, and tells him he must not un- 
derstand what he had said of going away topo- 
graphically. The " way " to God and heaven was 
the knowledge of Christ. They, his disciples, knew 
something of him at present, and it was " life " and 
the earnest of heaven ; but they should hereafter 
" know " him as they did not now. Now they knew 
him in his humiliation. And they knew him as of 
the same mode of existence as themselves. They 
knew him as they knew and were known of each 
other. But in being glorified he must change his 
mode of being, and pass into a state in which their 
senses could not perceive him. They would hence- 
forth believe in him and know him as apprehended 

7 * 



78 ESCHATOLOGY. 

by faith, and their knowledge of him as thus ob- 
tained would be the knowledge of the Father — 
artaqxi yivcooxets avrov. Besides, they would erelong 
experience the same change, and then they would 
know him, not by the exercise of faith merely, but 
directly, and in a manner analogous to sense. They 
would be like him, and therefore able to see him as 
he is (1 John 3 : 2), You will see me in my glory, 
and know me in my true character ; and knowing 
me in my glory, you will know the Father in his 
glory. 

This we consider the substance of what Christ 
said to Thomas. Professor Stuart (Bib. Sacra, 1852, 
p. 342), also such commentators as Doddridge, Kui- 
noel, Rosenmueller, understood the promise " I will 
come again " (verse 3), to refer to the death of the 
believer. That the Apostles understood it in this 
sense, is evident from the manner in which, in so 
many instances, they refer to it. " The Coming," 
" The Revelation," " The Appearing " of Christ were 
phrases most familiar, and full of sacred import. 
They became so familiar, as to be understood by 
only an allusion. " That day," " The day," were 
such allusions, and perfectly understood not only by 
Apostles, but by all to whom their epistles were ad- 
dressed. 

The following are specimens of the manner in 
which the Apostles refer to this promise. The refer- 



TRIALS END AT DEATH. 79 

ence is made sometimes with one, and sometimes 
with another of the associate events in mind. 

1. The following refer to the close of the present 
life, considered as a state of suffering, trial, or pro- 
bation. 

I 

1 Thess. 5 : 23. " And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; 
and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Nothing could be made plainer by any language 
than that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was 
to be either during or immediately in succession to 
the present life. It will not be claimed that it is to 
occur during the present life, since this would imply 
a point beyond which there is no need of praying to 
be preserved blameless. Then it must be in imme- 
diate succession to the present. For the body is to 
be preserved till, and found blameless when Christ 
appears. Christ is then to appear at the time of the 
close of the animal functions. 

James 5 : 7, 8. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of 
the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the 
earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter 
rain. (8) Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts : for the coming of 
the Lord draweth nigh." 

Here Christians who were suffering oppression and 
persecution from the rich and powerful are exhorted 
to bear patiently their sufferings until («»£, until such 
time as) the coming of the Lord. And moreover 



80 ESCHATOLOGY. 

that coming was to be to them what the harvest is 
to the husbandman — the day of reward, and can 
mean no other than the introduction to heaven. 
" Great is your reward in heaven." And yet further : 
" The coming of the Lord draweth nigh " (fyyixe, has 
come near, — a word that admits of no possible con- 
struction except to draw nigh, to be near at hand). 
As confirmatory of this, if confirmation be possible, 
it is added in the following verse, " The Judge stand- 
eth (I'gttjxw, has stationed himself, i. e. is now standing) 
before the door." 

Heb. 9 : 28. " Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ; 
and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time with- 
out sin unto salvation." 

Here the appearing of Christ is to effect or result 
in (ftV) the salvation of those who are waiting (anzx- 
beyoixtvoig) for him. In other words it introduces them 
to heaven. 

1 Tim. 6 : 13-15. "I give thee charge (14) That thou keep 

this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of 
our Lord Jesus Christ: (15) Which in his times he shall shew, who 
is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of 
lords." 

Timothy is solemnly charged carefully to maintain 
and obey the gospel " until (p?XQ l ) the appearing of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." Mzjqi, " a particle serving 
to mark a terminus ad quern, both of place and time. 
It differs therefore from a%Qi 9 in that a%Qi fixes the at- 



TRIALS END AT DEATH. 81 

tention upon the whole duration up to the limit, leav- 
ing the further continuance undetermined ; while 
fisxQt refers solely to the limit, implying that the ac- 
tion there terminates" — Robinson. The word then 
fixes the " appearing " at the termination of the fight 
of faith — at death. And the following verse informs 
us that God will give to his people this manifestation 
of Christ " in his own times " {xbuqoTq Idiotg) : not at 
any one time, but in " times " which his wisdom 
shall select for each individual Christian. It will be 
made to " each one in his own order " [haorog iv rep 
idicp tdy^ari) 1 Cor. 15 : 23. Here is a distinct recog- 
nition of the fact that each man is to " wait God's 
time" for the appearing of Christ. Timothy like 
Titus was to be " looking for that blessed hope, and 
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ" (Tit. 2:13). And mean time, 
to be strenuously engaged in the work of this edu- 
cational world. 

Phil. 1:6. " Being confident of this very thing, that he which 
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus 
Christ." 

" Until " (aiQig). This preposition implies contin- 
uance through the period indicated. The Apostle 
then is confident that their Christian growth will be 
continued up to the day of the Lord. What this 
growth is he afterwards explains (verses 9-11). And 



82 ESCHATOLOGY. 

this I pray that your love may abound yet more and 
more that ye may be without offence with ref- 
erence to («&), or so as to be pronounced such in the 
day of Christ. The Apostle then is confident that 
the Philippians will grow in grace up to the time of 
the day of the Lord. The difference between this 
and 1 Tim. 6 : 14 is this : Timothy was to toil on and 
keep the end in view. Hence the use of px<?'« Here 
the mind is upon the work of grace to be continued 
all the way to that end. Hence the use of a%Qi. 

Phil. 3 : 20, 21. "For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence 
also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : (21) Who shall 
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious 
body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things 
unto himself." 

" Conversation ; " nolitsvpa, citizenship, life as a 
citizen. 

" We look ; " dTtexdex6{izd-u, look for in a state of 
waiting" and strong desire. 

This earnest looking and waiting is of course for 
the " Coming " and " Appearing " of the Saviour. 
This coming is from heaven, "from whence we 
look," &c. When Christ shall appear, he will change 
our vile body, and thus deliver us from the ills that 
flesh is heir to. 

2. The following texts refer to the close of life 
with the Judgment as an associate event. 



DEATH AND THE JUDGMENT ASSOCIATE. 83 

Rev. 22 : 12. "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, 
to give every man according as his work shall be." 

The leading object of the Apocalypse seems to 
have been to give to the early Christians information 
in relation to the period of persecution through 
which the church was then passing. The Neronic 
persecution was soon to end. Indeed the entire 
period of persecution was to be comparatively of 
short duration. Still, while it continued, it would 
be severe, and faithful disciples would greatly need 
encouragement and patience. This encouragement 
would be found and this patience promoted by the 
consideration suggested in the text. These suffering 
saints would soon find themselves in the midst of 
the glories of " Christ in his kingdom " revealed. 
The coming of the Lord was near, and his rewards 
to the faithful would be great. 

1 John 2 : 28. " And now, little children, abide in him ; that, when 
he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before 
him at his coming." 

The Appearing and Coming are equivalent. The 
appearing is that which they are soon to witness, 
and they should be such as not to be confounded 
when brought into the presence of their Lord for 
judgment and final award. In the second verse of 
the following chapter the Apostle speaks of this ap- 
pearing and the " change " by which we, as having 



84 ESCHATOLOGY. 

borne the image of the earthly, " shall be like " the 
heavenly — the Saviour (1 Cor. 15 : 49). See Phil. 
3 : 20, 21. 

1 Cor. 4: 4, 5. "He that judgeth me is the Lord. (5) Therefore 
judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring 
to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the 
counsels of the hearts : and then shall every man have praise of 
God." 

The Coming of the Lord and the Judgment and 
bringing to light the things of darkness are asso- 
ciate. 

1 Cor. 5 : 5. "Deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of 
the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." 

The great question of salvation or perdition is to 
be decided in "the day of the Lord Jesus." But 
the "day of the Lord" is the day of death. 1 
Thess. 5 : 2. 

1 Thess. 3: 12, 13. "And the Lord make you to increase and 
abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do 
toward you: (13) To the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable 
in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ with all his saints." 

By the increase to abundance of love through the 
grace of Christ, it would follow as a result that their 
hearts or characters would be found blameless tv zfj 
TtaQovoia, when Christ should come. The verdict would 
then be pronounced. The Coming and the Judg- 
ment are associate events. 



HEAVEN BEGINS AT DEATH. 85 

1 Cor. 1 : 7, 8. " So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : (8) Who shall also confirm you 
unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus 
Christ/' 

" Waiting for," amxSzyoiizvovg, the same that is 
rendered "looking for" in Phil. 3: 20. Tit. 2: 13. 
2 Pet. 3 : 12. 

" Coming," dTtoxdXmptv, revelation or manifesta- 
tion, literally an uncovering. 

Here, being enriched (vs. 4-6) with the gifts and 
graces of the Christian character prepares the pos- 
sessor to stand in the attitude of waiting for the 
unveiling of the glory of Christ. And the Apostle 
expresses the confidence that the Saviour would 
confirm them in these graces " until " (a»?, so long as 
until) the end, so that they should be found blame- 
less in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, tcag relovg 
avzyxlrpovg h ry rfttsQa, &c, until the end blameless in 
the day, &c. To be in the end blameless is to be 
blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus. The end 
of life and the day of the Lord are synchronical. 
The day in which men are pronounced blameless or 
otherwise is the day of Judgment. 

3. The following texts refer to the close of life, 
and heaven as then having its commencement. 

Heb. 10 : 36, 37. "Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have 
done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. (37) For yet a 
little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." 

8 



86 ESCHATOLOGY. 

" A little while," iuxqov ogop ogov, a very, very little 
while, and He that is to come (6 tQxopevog) will come. 
The reference is most certainly to John 14 : 3, " I 
will come again and receive you unto myself." This 
is to be waited for with " patience." And the assur- 
ance designed to strengthen and encourage hope, 
is, that the Saviour will come in a very short time. 
The language may be borrowed from Hab. 2 : 3, but 
the fact to which the language refers is that of John 
14:3. 

Tit. 2 : 12, 13. "We should lire soberly, righteously, and godly, in 
this present world ; (13) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glo- 
rious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 

Looking with strong desire (7tQoadsx6[ievoi) for that 
object of our hope, the glorious appearing of the 
great God even our Saviour. The Coming of the 
Lord was the object then of hope and strong desire. 
But the object of the Christian's hope is heaven as 
a world in which Christ will " appear " and be seen 
in glory. 

2 Thess. 1 : 6, 7. "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense 
tribulation to them that trouble you ; ( 7 ) And to you who are troubled 
rest Avith us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
his mighty angels." 

When do believers come into the possession of 
the rest that remaineth for the people of God? 
When they rest from their labors. It is also contem- 



HEAVEN BEGINS AT DEATH. 87 

poraneous with the recompensing of tribulation to 
the wicked. When did the " rich man " receive his 
recompense ? 

2 Thess. 3:5. " The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, 
and into the patient waiting for Christ." 

1 Thess. 1 : 9, 10. " Ye turned to God from idols to serve the liv- 
ing and true God. (10) And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom 
he raised from the dead." 

To love God and to stand in the attitude of wait- 
ing for Christ are the characteristics of the Chris- 
tian. And Christ is to be waited for as "raised 
from the dead." But to see him as he is we must 
be like him ; that is, the " change " must pass upon 
us. See in the chapter on the Resurrection, 1 Cor. 
15 : 51, 52, also 1 John 3 : 2. These Thessalonian 
Christians, then, were to wait for that to which 
death would introduce them — the ability to see 
Christ as he is, to behold his glory. 

1 Pet. 1 : 5-7. "Who are kept by the power of God through faith 
unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) Wherein ye 
greatly .rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness 
through manifold temptations : (7) That the trial of your faith, being 
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with 
fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing 
of Jesus Christ." 

" The last time " is not to be confounded with 
"last times" as in v. 20, or 1 John 2: 18 (oopa), or 
Jude 18, where the Christian dispensation is indi- 
cated, as also in the phrase " last days " Heb. 1 : 



88 ESCHATOLOGY. 

12. The " last time " is equivalent to " the last day " 
of John 6 : 39, 40, 44, 54. 12 : 48. 

Salvation was " ready," in waiting to be revealed. 
If it be supposed " the last time " implied a time 
many thousands of years in the future, it were ab- 
surd to speak of it as ready (koifirjv) to be revealed. 

" Wherein," that is, in the fact that salvation is 
ready to be revealed. 

" A season," oliyov agri, literally a little now — a 
most emphatic method of saying a very little time ; 
as in Heb. 10: 37. 2 Cor. 4: 17. The appearing of 
Jesus Christ v. 7, and the revelation of salvation v. 
5, are associate facts. See v. 13, " Gird up the loins 
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the 
grace that is to be brought unto you at the revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ." 

1 Peter 4:13. " Kejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's 
sufferings ; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also 
with exceeding joy." 

Here the joy of heaven is contrasted with the suf- 
ferings of earth. But heaven begins at death : " To- 
day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Then the 
revelation of Christ will be at death. See vs. 5, 7. 

2 Tim. 4 : 6-8. " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my 
departure is at hand. (7)1 have fought a good fight, I have finished 
my course, I have kept the faith : (8) Henceforth there is laidiip for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
give me at that day : and not to me only, but unto all them also that 
love his appearing." 



HEAVEN BEGINS AT DEATH. 89 

Compare this with what Paul says, Phil. 1 : 23, " I 
am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, 
and to be with Christ." "Was not that desire to come 
into possession of what he here calls " a crown of 
righteousness ? " Then is this crown to be conferred 
at death — " at that day." And not to Paul only, 
but to all others who, like him, " love his appearing." 
It is here also as in 1 Thess. 1 : 9, 10 above, to be no- 
ticed that love for " the appearing of Christ " is one 
of the primary traits and distinguishing elements of 
Christian character. 

1 Peter 5 : 4. "When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall re- 
ceive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 

Was the encouragement administered in this lan- 
guage to be found in a fact thousands of years 
hence ? 

Rom. 13: 11, 12. "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high 
time to awake out of sleep : for now is our salvation nearer than when 
we believed. (12) The night is far spent, the day is at hand : let us 
therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor 
of light." 

WTiat is meant by salvation as near, and the day 
as at hand ? It must, it does refer to the fact that 
life is short, and death, with its associate events, is 
near. Heaven — " the revelation," " the appearing," 
" the being present " (naQovaia) of the Lord Jesus 
Christ is near. The day of the Lord is at hand. The 
crown is in waiting. Salvation is ready to be re- 

8* 



90 ESCHATOLOGY. 

vealed. The intervening time of trial and suffering 
is " but for a moment " — "a very, very little time." 

4. The following text refers to the close of life, and 
hell as then having its commencement. 

1 Thess. 5 : 2-4. " Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the 
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. (3) For when they shall say, 
Peace and safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as trav- 
ail upon a woman with child ; and they shall not escape. (4) But ye, 
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a 
thief/' 

" The day of the Lord " is a phrase we have con- 
sidered. In this text the good are represented as 
having an interest in it. It will come suddenly, but 
they are not in darkness, that, like a thief, it should 
find them unprepared. The wicked have an interest 
in it, but in the infatuation of sin they cry, Peace 
and safety. But while thus crying — it cannot be 
when, like the " rich man," they are in torment, but 
must be in this life when alone unbelief and insensi- 
bility is possible — sudden destruction comes upon 
them. They die, and awake — in hell. Verse 23, 
already quoted, shows that it is the end of life 
when the bodily functions cease, that is referred to. 
" I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ" The period between this and the day 
of the Lord is covered by the experience of the ani- 
mal impulses. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 91 



OBJECTIONS 



But we shall be met by the objection, that while 
the texts above quoted might bear and seem to re- 
quire the construction put upon them, there are other 
texts where the same phraseology occurs, which for- 
bid this construction. And we are referred to 1 Thess. 
4: 13-17. 2 Thess. 1: 6-10. 2: 1-5. 2 Pet. 2: 4. 3: 3- 
18. Jude 6. These texts therefore we will carefully 
examine. 

1 Thess. 4 : 13-17 as it bears more especially on 
the doctrine of the Resurrection, will be examined in 
the chapter on that subject. 

2 Thess. 1 : 6-10. 

" It is a righteous tiling with God to recompense tribulation to 
them that trouble you ; (7) And to you who are troubled rest with 
us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, (8) In naming fire taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ: (9) Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ; 
(10) When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be 
admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among 
you was believed), in that day." 

We have already referred to such parts of the 
above as relate to the " rest " which, after the afflic- 
tions that are " but for a moment " have passed by, 
awaits the good. But " when " this " rest " begins, 



92 ESCHATOLOGY. 

begins also the punishment with everlasting destruc- 
tion of the wicked. If the former, so also the lat- 
ter begins with the close of life — when the Lord 
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty- 
angels. 

The difficulty with the objector is to reconcile the 
bold imagery of this language with the event of 
death. But it should be remembered that the theory 
of these pages makes death, with its associate facts 
— the Anastasis, the Parousia, the Judgment — the 
great and all-important event of our being. And if 
ever, and on any subject, the writer, whose style had 
been formed under the influence of the Hebrew 
Scriptures, would employ the terms of a sublime 
imagery, it would be on this very subject — of all 
others in the Bible, of the most oppressive and over- 
whelming importance. 

The reader familiar with the usus loquendi of the 
Old Testament, will be prepared to expect, on this 
hypothesis, just such language as we find. He will 
call to mind such texts as the following : Deut. 33 : 
2. Psalms 50, 83 and 97. Isa. 30 : 33. 66: 15. Dan. 
7: 9, 10 ; also Deut. 4: 24. 9:3. And of the above 
texts, if the objector will read and understand only 
Psalm 50, and then admit that much of this same 
style of composition is found in the Old Testament, 
he will be prepared to accept such imagery as that in 
2 Thess. 1 : 6-10 in describing the facts assumed in 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 93 

our exegesis. Fire is the symbol of God's vindica- 
tory justice (Heb. 12: 29). 

The objection found in the figurative language 
being then removed, we are prepared to look at some 
of the phraseology which may fix the time referred 
to. It is " when " the believer enters into " rest ; n 
which we have seen is at death. It is at the time 
of the " revelation " (Iv rj/ daoxaXthpeg) of the Lord 
Jesus ; which is also at death. It is in " that day," 
which we have seen was one of the forms of expres- 
sion used to denote the Parousia. It will be admit- 
ted by all that the same facts and the same time of 
their occurrence are referred to, as in the beginning 
of the following chapter, as also in chapters iv. and 
v. of the first Epistle ; so that whatever exegesis dis- 
poses of them, will take this also. 

2 Thessalonians, 2 : 1-9. 

''EpuTLJfj.ev de vfitig, udetyol, virep Now we beseech you, brethren, 

TqsTrapovciagTov'K.vpLovr}[iC)v , lr)Gov by the coming of our Lord Jesus 

Xpiorov, not j](iC)v kKLOvvayuyric erf Christ, and by our gathering to- 

avrbv, (2) elg to fir) Taxeug calev- gether unto him, (2) That ye be 

Ofjvai ifiug and tov vobg, (iTjTe dpoel- not soon shaken in mind, or be 

cQai, — [it] re 6cd irvevfiaTog, fj,r)re 6cd troubled, neither by spirit, nor by 

?i6yov, [it)te 6c' einaTo2.r}g ug 6c' word, nor by letter, as from us, as 

i]fj.uv } — tog 6ti eveoTTjuev fj f/fiepaTov that the day of Christ is at hand. 

Kvpiov. (3) fj-r) rig v[iag e^airaTTjar) (3) Let no man deceive you by 

KaTu [irjdeva Tpoirov ■ otl edv fir) eTiBr/ any means, for that day sliall not 

7] CLTtoaTaaia -KpCJTov, aal anoicahvfydri come, except there come a falling 

6 uvdpcmog Ti)g afiapriag, 6 vlbg Tr)g away first, and that man of sin be 

uTTG)?,eiag, (4) 6 avTineifievog aal revealed, the son of perdition, 

vrrepaipofievog em ndvTa leyofievov (4) Who opposeth and exalteth 

Qebv fj cepacia, wore afobv elg Tbv himself above all that is called 



94 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



vabv rov Qeov d)g debv nadioai, 
anodeLKviivra iavrbv on ban Qebg. . . 
(5) Ov fivrj/iovevere on en iov npbg 
vfidg, ravra eleyov vfilv; (6) Kal 
vvv to Karexov oldare, elg to airona- 
\vtydfjvai avTov bv tcj bavTov Kacpti. 
(7) to yap iivoTjjpiov jjdrj evepyelTat 
Ti]Q ttvofiiag, tiovov 6 kotzx^v aprc 
eug e/c fxeaov yevTjTcu' (8) ical tots 
anonaTivtydqo'ETat 6 uvo/xog, bv 6 
Kvptog 'Irjaovg uvaTiiooet t& irvev- 
fiaTi 70v CTOfiaTog avTov, Kal naiap- 
yrjaei ry emQavsLg, Ttjg tzapovaiag 
avTov • (9) ov kariv rj napovcia /car' 
kvepyeiav iov liaravd ev iracr/ dvva- 
fiEi Kal G7//j.eioig Kal Tepaai ipevdovg. 



God, or that is worshipped : so that 
he as God, sitteth in the temple of 
God, shewing himself that he is 
God. (5) Remember ye not, that 
when I was yet with you, I told 
you these things 1 ( 6 ) And now ye 
know what withholdeth, that he 
might be revealed in his time. (7) 
For the mystery of iniquity doth 
already work : only he who now 
lctteth, will let, until he be taken 
out of the way. (8) And then 
shall that Wicked be revealed, 
whom the Lord shall consume 
with the spirit of his mouth, and 
shall destroy with the brightness 
of his coming : (9) Even Mm 
whose coming is after the working 
of Satan, with all power and 
signs, and lying wonders. 



The following is submitted as the correct transla- 
tion. 

And, brethren, concerning the Coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered unto him, 
we pray you (2) not to be hastily unsettled in mind, 
nor troubled either by [pretended revelations of the] 
Spirit, or by word or letter as from us, seeing that the 
day of the Lord is near. (3) Let no one deceive you 
by any means. For, if the apostasy do not first 
come, and the wicked man be not revealed, — the 
son of perdition, (4) who puts himself in opposition 
to and is exalted above all that is called God or an 
object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the 
temple of God, pretending that he is God,— -what 



THE PAKOUSIA NEAK. 95 

then ? (5) Do you not remember that when yet with 
you I told you these things ? (6) You know what 
now restrains so as that he shall be brought into no- 
tice and influence in his time. (7) For this species 
of sin, hitherto unknown to the church, is in secret 
operation. He who is restraining, is doing it only 
for the present, until he may be removed. (8) And 
then the lawless man will come into open activity, — 
whom the Lord Jesus shall destroy with the breath 
of his mouth, and render powerless by the splendor 
of his presence, — (9) even lie whose career is after 
the working of Satan with all power and signs and 
lying wonders. 

" Concerning the Coming" v. 1, vtzIq zrfi nciQovoiag. 
As authority for this rendering, it is sufficient to 
name Rosenmueller, "Winer, and Robinson. 'TntQ 
would never have been rendered " by," but for the 
necessities of a theological system. 

" Unsettled in mind," oalev&rjvcu unb rov voog, lit- 
erally, shaken from the mind. "We might understand 
mind in the sense of opinion. Novg has sometimes 
that meaning as in 1 Cor. 1: 10. The opinion re- 
ferred to would be that of the Coming of the Lord 
as near. The Apostle took great pains in all his 
writings, that the disciples should have an opinion 
on this great subject. •" I solemnly declare to you, 
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is now 



96 ESCHATOLOGY. 

about to judge the living and the dead, both his 
Coming and his Kingdom." 2 Tim. 4: 1. — Knapp, 
Nov. Test. Alii. So in his first epistle to the Thes- 
salonians, " I would not have you to be ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye 
sorrow not even as others which have no hope " (4 : 
13). The Apostle had evidently been misunderstood 
in what on a former occasion he had said on the sub- 
ject of the Parousia. And it is to these misapprehen- 
sions that he refers in this chapter.* What specifi- 
cally the errors needing correction were, we cannot 
know, except as they may be inferred from the allu- 
sions here made to them. Paul, it would seem, had 
informed them, that heretical opinions of a serious 
kind, would find their way into the church, and for 
a time prevail; but that the Lord would destroy 
them " with the brightness of his coming" (rtaQovoia) 
— coming in the sense of a moral manifestation. It 
may be that the church confounded this term (rtaqov- 



* Macknight translates and paraphrases v. 2 thus : " That ye be not 
soon shaken from your purpose of following the business of the pres- 
ent life, nor put into confusion, neither by any revelation of the Spirit, 
which these deceivers may feign, nor by any verbal message, nor by letter, 
which they bring to you, as from us, importing," &c. He adds the fol- 
lowing note: "Soon shaken from your purpose. 'ZaTiev&TJvai, is to be 
shaken, as ships are by the waves while lying at anchor. Joined with 
and vooq, it signifies to be shaken or moved from one's purposes or reso- 
lution. Chandler interprets it, shaken from the true meaning of my 
former letter." We are inclined to adopt the hypothesis of Chan- 
dler. 



THE PAROUSIA NEAR. 97 

oia) as thus used, with the same word used with a 
different signification, as in v. 1, and had supposed 
that The Paeousia was not to come till after the 
long period of the gradual incoming and as gradual 
removal of this heresy. Hence the language of the 
Apostle in v. 3 seq. The church, if admitting the 
fact of the Parousia, might have supposed it in the 
distance, and beyond the time of their own death, 
and consequently had erroneous views of it. Or they 
might have doubted the fact. It was a doctrine de- 
nied by the unbelieving world. "When those died 
who had believed in it, and been waiting for it, scof- 
fers asked, " Where is the promise of his Coming ? " 
— understanding it, as modern commentators do, to 
refer to a physical catastrophe of the world. 

If, however, we understand Galev&rjvai ano zov voog 
in the sense of being agitated, deprived of self-pos- 
session, the doctrine of the context will not be affect- 
ed. The Thessalonians would be disturbed, not by 
the prospect of the speedy Coming of the Lord, but 
rather by the fear of delay. This was true of the 
primitive Christians generally. The Apostles had lit- 
tle occasion to admonish them to be ready for " that 
day," but rather that they be patient and wait for it. 
And the assurance so often given, that the day of the 
Lord was at hand, was designed for their consolation 
rather than admonition. 

Nothing, then, could be more in keeping with the 

9 



98 ESCHATOLOGJ. 

circumstances of the case, or the spirit and demands 
of the times, than that the Apostle should attempt 
to allay the agitations of the Thessalonian Chris- 
tians, by assuring them that the day of the Lord 
was just at hand. 

" Seeing that " v. 2, oo£ on. To every one familiar 
with the language of Apostles, the presumption is 
that this is the true rendering. We expect the in- 
spired writers will not contradict themselves and each 
other. But the common rendering is in direct con- 
flict with other inspired assertions, and with the en- 
tire drift of apostolic writing. Thus, James 4: 7, 8, 
" Be patient, brethren, until (tag) the Coming of the 
Lord . . . for the Coming of the Lord draweth 
nigh" (?77 w «, has already come near). Phil. 4: 5, 
"The Lord is at hand" (eyyvg, near). 1 Pet. 4:7, 
" The end (telog, consummation^ i. e. of all that relates 
to the individual) of all things is at hand (%yyms). 7i 
Heb. 10 : 37, " Yet a little while ([uxqov oaov ooov, very 
very little) and he that shall come will come, and will 
not tarry." Rev. 22 : 20, " Surely I come quicldy " 
(Nai 8q%0[acu ta%v)* 



* Professor Crosby, assuming the correctness of the rendering, in 
the common version, of wc on, makes a distinction between ivearijKev 
{" is at hand ") of v. 2, and tjjjlke and its kindred words in the above 
quotations, claiming that kveaTr,Kev implies the more instant occurrence 
of that of which it is predicated. Indeed he renders it by " already 
present," — as if the Apostle designed not to deny that the Parousia 
was near, but only that it was not already present. The train of thought 



THE PAROUSIA NEAR. 99 

The phrase rig on occurs but in two other instances 
in the New Testament, 2 Cor. 5 : 19 and 11 : 21. 
The first, Winer considers as causal.* That it is so 
is obvious. " Hath committed to us the ministry 
(diaxoviav, literally, the office of ministering) of the 
reconciliation ; seeing that (rig on) God was in Christ 
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing to 
men their trespasses." Obviously diaxoviav (ministry) 
cannot be in apposition to the clause " God is in 
Christ reconciling the world unto himself," &c. This 
latter is evidently designed a$ a reason why this min- 
istry is committed to the Apostles and Christians. 
There could be no such ministry but for this great 
fundamental fact of the Christian scheme. 

That 2 Cor. 11 : 21 is to be construed in the same 
manner, is probable. Of exegeses multitudinous, 
we know of none more satisfactory than that which 
translates rig on as causal : " We speak concerning 
reproach, seeing that we have been weak." As con- 
firmatory of this, see vs. 29-33, and especially as 
translated by Conybeare.f See also chap. 12 : 7-10. 



in connection forbids us to suppose that the Thessalonians considered 
the day of the Lord a present reality. What he said of the Parousia 
in his first Epistle, would of necessity lead them to understand by it 
that which implied a very great change upon the present, ''EviornKev 
can hardly be considered more emphatic with reference to the immedi- 
ateness of the Parousia, than the above texts. — Second Advent, p. 78. 

* Idioms, Appendix, § 67. Pleonasm, 1, p. 445. 

t " Who is weak, but I share his weakness ? Who is caused to fall, 
but I bum with indignation ? If I must needs boast, it shall not be in 



100 ESCHATOLOGY. 

And it may be remarked that da&sveux (weakness) 
and its kindred adjective and verb, are in the Septu- 
agint used to denote weakness in the sense, not of 
an amount less than the average of corporeal or 
mental strength, but as indicating an inability to en- 
dure or sustain the calamities and afflictions which 
are brought in the providence of God. This use of 
the word passes into the New Testament. Paul in 
this sense was " weak." But he had the promise, 
" My grace is sufficient for thee." Most gladly, there- 
fore, did he glory in his weaknesses (aG&eveiou,g), 

The following is submitted as probably the import 
of vs. 18-22. Since many boast of their earthly 
relations and condition (xata r^v odgxa), I will boast 
also. (19) Good-naturedly ye bear with the foolish, 
ye being wise. (20) Ye bear it even if any one 
make slaves of you ; if any one take from you by 
extortion ; if any one take from you by violence ; if 
any one sets himself above you [i. e. treats you with 
contempt] ; if any one smites you in the face [refer- 
ring, probably, in these cases, to some things done by 
the false teachers]. (21) I speak [i. e. I am about 



my strength, but in my weakness. God, who is the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, He who is blessed forever, knows that I lie not. 

" In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king kept watch <over 
the city with a garrison, purposing to apprehend me ; and I was let 
down by the wall, through a window, in a basket, and thus [not by my 
strength, but by my weakness] I escaped his hands. It is not for me, 
then, to boast." — Life and Epistles of St. Paul, II. p. 116. 



THE PAROUSIA NEAE. 101 

to say some things of my ancestry, relations, and 
history] on account of dishonor [cast upon me and 
my fellow laborers] ; seeing that we are weak [and 
may seem to you, sometimes, as if abandoned of 
God]. But (8s antithetic) in this respect [though 
weak in some sense], if any man is resolute, I more : 
[I am ready to say the truth] (and you may call me 
a fool). (22) Are they [the false teachers] Hebrews? 
So am I. Are they Israelites ? So am I, &c. 

Classic usage sustains us. KatTjyoQovv avrov cog 
o? i xaiva daifiovia eiacpsQEi, because or seeing that he in- 
troduced new gods. Isoc. orat. argum. p. 362. 

"We have but to adopt the same translation of 
cog on in 2 Thess. 2 : 2. The Apostle exhorts the 
Thessalonians not to be shaken in mind, or abandon 
their opinion so important and so full of encourage- 
ment and consolation to the suffering disciples, con- 
cerning the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and 
their being gathered around him as the blessed sub- 
jects of his heavenly administration; seeing that the 
day of the Lord is at hand. They must not allow 
themselves to be deceived by the false reasoning of 
errorists. This is in keeping with texts like the fol- 
lowing: 1 Cor. 1 : 7, 8. 1 Thess. 1 : 9, 10. 2 Thess. 
3 : 5. Tit. 2 : 12, 13.* 



* Prof. Kobinson (Lex.) defines ug on "to wit that." Adopting the 
opinion of Chandler, expressed in a previous note, that voog signifies 

9* 



102 ESCHATOLOGY. 

" The wicked man," v. 3. This, strange to say, 
has been applied to the Pope. The language in the 
connection is not a prediction of events in the dis- 
tant future, but an allusion to events then transpiring. 
It was a man, a single wicked man, plotting evil. 
He was held in check by the influence of another 
single man (6 xartx&v) who would soon be removed, 
and thus give to this errorist the ground for his un- 
opposed work. And he would act himself out (dno- 
xalvcp&ijoerai). But his career would be short. The 
Lord would destroy him by the breath of his mouth. 

It is surprising that even in the days of the Refor- 
mation, when the Bible was made to say a great deal 
about the Pope, it should be thought that Popery 
could have had its beginning here in Macedonia, and 
in the day of persecution. And still more surprising 
that such an exegesis should have come down to our 
day. This is not a solitary instance of the influence 
of an errorist disturbing the early churches. Those 
in Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, and Colosse, evidently 
suffered in the same way. That this language has 
any reference to the Pope is a pure assumption. We 
have the same right, and as much reason, to apply it 
to Arminius, or Swedenborg, or Joe Smith. The 
early Christians applied it to Nero. 



opinion, the text will read thus : " That ye be not soon shaken from the 
opinion . . . to ivit, that the day of the Lord is at hand." Liddell and 
Scott make uc pleonastic in this phrase in classic usage. It would 
then read, "the opinion that the day," &c. 



SCOFFERS OBJECT. 103 

" What then ? " v. 4. The preceding sentence is 
an instance of aposiopesis. So Knapp. 

" This species of sin hitherto unknown to the 
church," v. 7. This rendering is paraphrastic, and 
may seem somewhat liberal ; but all this is contained 
in to [xvcyn^Qiov. 

The reference in v. 8 is evidently to a merely 
moral manifestation of the Saviour. 

We see, then, that 2 Thess. 2 : 1-5, so far from 
militating against our position, does, when rightly 
understood, support it directly and most emphatical- 
ly. The Thessalonians are solemnly admonished 
not to give up their belief in the great fact of the 
Appearing and Kingdom of Christ ; and are assured 
that the day of the Lord is near. 

2 Peter 3 : 3-9. 

'Elevaovrac ett' kaxarov riov rjfjE- There shall come in the last 

pibv hv efj.Tvatjfj.ov7j kfnTalKTaL, Kara days scoffers, walking after their 

rug idiag kiudvfiiag avruv Tropsvo- own lusts, (4) And saying, Where 

fiEvoi, (4) nal 7i£yov-Eg' Uov karuv is the promise of his coming'? for 

ri EirayyEkia rrjg irapovaiag avrov ; since the fathers fell asleep, all 

u,(j)' ?jg yap ol Trarspeg EKOLfjr/dycav, things continue as they were from 

rxdvra ovtcj dcafjivEt utt' apxrjg icrl- the beginning of the creation. 
GEug. 

(5) AavdavEi yap avrovg rovro (5) For this they willingly are 

delovrag, ore ovpavol t)aav EKiralai, ignorant of, that by the word of 

Kal yr~] ef vdarog nal tV vdarog cvve- God the heavens were of old, and 

ciuaa, t£) tov Qeov loyo), (6) 6t' the earth standing out of the water, 

uv 6 tote Koofiog vdari naraaTiv- and in the water, (6) Whereby 

odEig utxuIeto- (7) ol devvvovpa-- the world that then was, being 

vol Kal fj yrj t& avrov loyu rEdrj- overflowed with water, perished. 

cavpiofiEvoi Eiol, TTvpl TrjpovfXEvoL etc (7) But the heavens and the earth 



104 ESCHATOLOGT. 

rjixipav Kpiaecog aal tcncoleiag tuv which are now, by the same word 
acefjtiv dvdpcoTccov. are kept in store, reserved unto 

fire against the day of judgment, 
and perdition of ungodly men. 
(8) r Ev 6s tovto in) Tiavdavero (8) But, beloved, be not igno- 
ifidg, ayaiT7}TOL, ore iiia ijfiipa napa rant of this one thing, that one 
Kvpco cog x^ lLa & T W> Ka ^ X^ ca & Tr l day is with the Lord as a thou- 
cog fyfiipa iiia. (9) ov (3pa6vvet 6 sand years, and a thousand years 
Kvpiog rr)g e^ayyeliag, cog nveg as one day. (9) The Lord is not 
(3padvT7/Ta rjyovvrat • aKKd fianpodv- slack concerning his promise, as 
pec elg rjfiug, fj-r) (3ov?i6fj,evog rcvag some men count slackness, but is 
uiroTieodcu, uXka iravrag elg iieid- longsuffering to us-ward, not will- 
votav xuprjoai. ing that any should perish, but 

that all should come to repent- 
ance. 



This is supposed to conflict with the theory now 
advocated. But, like 2 Thess. ii, it needs but a cor- 
rect exegesis, and it becomes to us a pillar of sup- 
port. Our rendering is as follows. 

There shall come in the last days shameless scof- 
fers, governed by their own depraved impulses, (4) 
and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? 
for, since the old men have died, all things continue 
as from the beginning of the creation. 

(5) It does not occur to those who think thus, that 
the heavens were of long standing; and [that] the 
earth, by divinely established laws, [was] constructed 
from the water by the action of water ; (6) so that 
the world that then was, being overflowed with 
water, perished. (7) But the present heavens and 
earth, by the same laws, are preserved as a treasure, 



SCOFFERS ANSWERED. 105 

kept by fire with reference to a day of judgment 
and of perdition of ungodly men. 

(8) Do not forget, brethren, this one thing, that, 
with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and 
a thousand years as one day. (9) The Lord is not 
slow in the sense in which some use the term, but 
is longsufTering towards us, not willing that any 
should perish, but that all should come to repent- 
ance. 

Vekses 10-17. 

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the 
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up. (11) Seeing then that all these things shall 
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con- 
versation and godliness, (12) Looking for and hasting unto the coming 
of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (13) Nevertheless we, 
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. (14) Wherefore, beloved, seeing that 
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in 
peace, without spot, and blameless. (15) And account that the long- 
suffering of our Lord is salvation ; even as our beloved brother Paul 
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you ; 
(16) As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things ; in 
which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are un- 
learned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto 
their own destruction. (17) Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know 
these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error 
of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." 

" Scoffers," v. 3. These persons were "evidently, 
like the Thessalonians who had misunderstood Paul, 
Greeks, or at any rate not familiar with the Hebrew 



106 ESCHATOLOGY. 

idiom. Hence they had understood the language 
the Apostle had on some occasion used, or it may- 
be the language of some other Apostle, or of the 
church of that day (v. 4), in relation to the Coming 
of the Lord, as implying a physical catastrophe — 
very much like the modern notions of the end of the 
world. They had construed such language as vs. 
10-12 literally. 

" Where is the promise ? " v. 4. What has be- 
come of it ? It has not been fulfilled. 

" Since the old men have died," v. 4. It would 
seem that these fathers in the church had been in 
the habit of speaking of the Coming of the Lord, 
and of themselves as " waiting for " that event. 
The irreligious scoffers had, as Ave have said, under- 
stood this language literally. These men had died, 
and the event which they had been understood to be 
waiting for had not come to pass. They claimed, 
therefore, they had proof that this new religion was 
unreal, and its pretensions to be resisted. 

" It does not occur," &c. v. 5. The argument of 
the Apostle here is, that there are objections against 
understanding literally the figurative language of 
the heavens passing away with a crash. The 
heavens were no temporary structure of recent origin. 
They -were of long standing (hnalai) even at the 
time of the flood, and it were absurd to suppose 
they were now, as a part of human history to come 



BIBLICAL GEOLOGY. 107 

to an end. And this is certainly the inference of an 
intelligent astronomy. There are few things that 
we have read with greater astonishment than the 
following sentence from Dr. Knapp (Theology, II. 
p. 214). " When the present state of the world 
shall cease, the greatest revolutions will take place 
in the whole universe, 2 Peter 3 : 7, 10-13." Geol- 
ogy utters a language scarcely less emphatic against 
the hypothesis of a catastrophe such as is advo- 
cated. President Hitchcock has indeed attempted 
to reconcile such catastrophe with the facts of 
Geology and the truths of the Bible ; but the result 
of his effort is, that the heaven in which the saints 
shall finally be placed is to be a " lake of fire and 
brimstone ! " — Religion of Geology, pp. 378, 398- 
402. 

" The earth, .... constructed from the water by 
the action of water," v. 5, yrj e| vdarog xal 81 vdarog 
cvvaotojaa, literally put together from water by water. 
We understand the Apostle to affirm that the coun- 
try occupied by the antediluvians was alluvial, and 
but a little above the level of the waters of the 
region : and that as a consequence (dl gov) the coun- 
try could be submerged. This country was probably 
what is now the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris, 
modified by certain geological changes that occurred 
at the time of the deluge. We learn from the his- 
tory of the flood (Gen. 7: 20) that the waters pre- 



108 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



vailed but " fifteen cubits upward," yet the moun- 
tains were covered, and at such depth as to destroy 
all animal life. The country, therefore, must have 
been very level. And a slight upheaval of some 
portion, or a slight depression, or perhaps both in 
different places — such as is known often to have 
occurred in the history of the planet, is ample cause 
for all that is recorded as the effects of the deluge. 

That geological changes of the kind indicated 
did occur at the time, is inferred from the geographi- 
cal notices in Gen. 2 : 10-14. The book of Genesis 
is evidently a compilation from preexisting materials, 
and we may suppose this to have come down from 
the antediluvian period, and to have been transferred 
unaltered. When written it was of course descrip- 
tive of places and rivers as they then were. But it 
can have no application to the facts of the post- 
diluvian world. Nor are we to suppose the names 
to be of the same rivers that now bear them. Noah 
and his family would be likely to take the names of 
antediluvian rivers and apply them to those of their 
own day, much as we of New England apply to 
places and rivers the names so appropriated in the 
mother country. 

We have, then, the two facts, a level country and 
geological changes ; which are a sufficient explana- 
tion of the flood and its effects in destroying the 
race. These facts the Apostle says, the scoffers 



BIBLICAL GEOLOGY. 109 

either did not know or ignored (lav&dvsi). The 
catastrophe and destruction of the race were at that 
time possible. 

" But" v. 7 (ds adversative), such a catastrophe is 
now out of the question. The world as now it is 
through the agency of fire, is not liable to any such 
changes,* but is kept as a treasure, and though men 
are now, as before the flood, wicked, yet it is not 
God's design to punish them in the methods he 
then employed. The world is " kept " with reference 
to (aV) a day of judgment and perdition in a future 
state. God will then vindicate his justice. And it 
is now, as it was not in the earlier periods of the 
race, distinctly revealed that there is such a state, 
and that it is to be retributive (Acts 17 : 30, 31). So 
that though God bears long with the wicked, and 
permits them to know no bands in their death, yet 



^ If it be objected that this is to make Peter too geological for his 
day, we reply that the common version is open to the same objection, 
and in an equal degree. If the globe is " reserved unto fire," it is to be 
burned by the breaking out of its internal fires, and not by the spread 
of fire upon its surface. But what did the men of Peter's time know 
of the internal fire of our planet ? If it was a matter of pure revela- 
tion, we may as well suppose it to be revealed to the Apostle that these 
internal fires had become so reduced, and the crust of the earth so 
thick and consolidated, that no other such geological change as that 
which produced the flood, would ever again happen. His argument is 
that when the flood occurred there was a geological possibility of it. 
If the protasis be geological, why not also the apodosis 1 What is said 
in v. 5 of the heavens as of great antiquity, is equally in advance of 
the astronomical knowledge of that day. 

10 



110 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



does not his government suffer, or his authority lose 
its force. That eug may be rendered " with reference 
to," see Heb. 4: 16. Acts 25: 20. Rom. 4: 20. Eph. 
4 : 15. Luke 12 : 19. Gal. 6 : 4. 2 Cor. 11 : 10, and 
"Winer, § 53 (a). For the rendering " The earth .... 
constructed from the water by the action of water " 
(yij l£ vdarog xal dl vdarog ovveGTooaa), see Winer, § 54, 
p. 331. Of vdan (water), and itvQi (fire), in the sen- 
tences " overflowed by water " and " kept by fire," if 
the one' is to be rendered as cause and with the 
preposition by, so must the other. The construction 
is the same in each case. 

" Heavens," v. 7. Not in the astronomical sense, 
but as then understood — a part of the world 
(xocfiog.) 

" Kept by fire," v. 7. We prefer the reading which 
connects tzvqi with rijQovfievoi. See Knapp, Nov. Test. 
Alii. 

Verses 8, 9. With v. 7, the Apostle closes his 
reply to the scoffers, and again addresses his "be- 
loved" brethren. The time in which wicked men 
are permitted to pursue their career may seem to 
them long. But they should remember it does not 
seem so to Him who sees the end from the begin- 
ning. With the Lord a thousand years are as one 
day, and one day as a thousand years. And that 
God allows bad men so long to escape unpunished 
is because he is not willing that any should perish : 



god's patience ends. Ill 

he gives them time and reiterated offers of recon- 
ciliation and mercy. " Slow, in the sense in which 
some use the term," v. 9, — in the sense of dilatory. 

Verse 10. But though punishment is delayed, it 
will come, and come suddenly, and be such as to 
authorize the language of bold imagery, which Chris- 
tians have been taught to employ, but which the 
scoffers have misunderstood or criminally perverted ; 
and which is yet appropriate and in keeping with the 
style of the Old Testament Scriptures. The day. of 
the Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heav- 
ens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele- 
ments shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also 
and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 

Let the reader turn to Deut. 32 : 22. Jer. 15 : 14. 
17 : 4. Lam. 4 : 11, and many other similar texts, 
and he will see that the men whose style was formed 
by and whose allusions were to the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures, would use just such language as Peter has 
used in the circumstances. 

Verses 11—17. This great doctrine has its applica- 
tion to Christians. Since all these things are so soon 
to pass away, and since they are to be succeeded by 
a glorious and spiritual Administration of the Lord, 
it follows as an inference that Christians should put 
practically a very low estimate upon the present, so 
transient as it is, and give out all their desires and 
affections upon the future, longing for the realization 



112 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



of the promised good. New heavens and a new 
earth are promised. To the saints the power of per- 
ception and enjoyment will be so greatly enlarged, 
that the heavens and the earth will be new to them, 
though unchanged. And they must now be con- 
stantly using the greatest care to be such that when 
Christ shall appear, they may be found immaculate, 
blameless. And if this period of painful watching 
is prolonged, they must consider it a part of that ad- 
ministration which also spares the impenitent with 
reference to their salvation. What is painful watch- 
ing and struggling and waiting to the good, is salva- 
tion to the wicked. It gives them space for repent- 
ance. " The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation," 
v. 15. 

The allusion to Paul as in his epistles, speaking on 
this subject things hard to be understood, authorizes 
us to apply what Paul has said of " The Coming of 
the Lord," to this subject as presented by Peter; as 
also the explanations we have given of Paul. They 
both refer to the same thing by the TtaQovaia rov xvqiov. 

Nothing can be plainer than that what is here said 
must of necessity refer to what was just at hand, 
and for which the persons addressed were to stand 
in the attitude of waiting, and were to wait till it 
came. The delay was not because the Lord was 
slack in fulfilling his promise to Christians, but be- 
cause he was forbearing to the wicked and would 



NO END OF THE WORLD. 113 

save them (vs. 9, 15) ; the day of the Lord would 
come as a thief ; the exhortation to be spiritual and 
to stand not only waiting for but hastening the com- 
ing of the day — to be found in peace and spotless 
when the day comes — these all must mean that the 
event was to come to them while in the flesh. The 
supposition that it refers to a catastrophe that "was 
thousands of years in the future, is absurd. It is 
doing violence to the word of God. It is " taking 
away from the words of the book," Rev. 22 : 19. 

" If the ' end of the world ' is not taught in 2 Pet. 
iii, it is not taught in the Bible." So said a distin- 
guished living theologian to the writer. With great 
veneration for the many good men who have taught 
us a different doctrine, we respectfully submit that it 
is not taught here. The Bible is entirely silent in 
regard to the future geological history of the globe 
we inhabit, as also any astronomical changes. While 
we have great reverence for man as made in the 
image of God, and as capable of such an amazing 
future of expansion and glory, we are yet to be per- 
suaded that any great changes in the stellary world 
are to attend upon any changes in his condition. It 
is a dream — that the sun and the moon and the 
stars shall make obeisance to man. 

Are we asked what is to become of the earth ? 
We answer, we do not know — any more than we 

10* 



114 ESCHATOLOGY. 

know what is to become of Jupiter, or any one or 
all of the fixed stars. The earth has been in exist- 
ence probably many millions of years. We know 
no reason why it should not exist forever. It has 
been and now is the subject of perpetual change. 
To what these changes shall ultimately lead, God 
has not told us. They may be eternal, and furnish 
in endless variety and increasing splendor and power 
of impression the manifestations of the wisdom, 
power, and love of the Creator — a spectacle to an- 
gels and to men made perfect. 

LOCALITY OF HEAVEN. 

As we have had frequent occasion to allude to the 
locality of heaven, it may be well in this connection 
to ask more definitely for information at the page of 
inspiration. It is a very common opinion that hea- 
ven is locally at a great distance. The earliest song 
of the little one is : 

" There is a happy land 
Ear, far away, 
Where saints in glory stand 
Bright, bright as day." 

And older ones have sung : 

" High in yonder realms of light 
Dwell the raptured saints above." 



LOCALITY OF HEAVED. 115 

What is the teaching of the Bible on this sub- 
ject ? 

So far as there are any references to location, the 
Scriptures seem to place heaven upon or in connec- 
tion with earth. The ancients knew nothing of any- 
other place. Much of the phraseology of the Bible 
in relation to a future state is derived from the opin- 
ions of the surrounding nations. Previous to the 
coming of Christ it had been no object of inspiration 
to reveal a future world. Yet there had been a grad- 
ual growth of that idea among the Chosen People, 
and that growth seems attributable to their inter- 
course with the inhabitants of other countries. Of 
course, then, the phraseology in which their concep- 
tions would be clothed was foreign. For instance, 
Hades (ydrjg) Acts 2 : 27, Tartarus (raQragcoGag^ verb 
from raQraoog), 2 Pet. 2:4. So of Paradise (TiaQ&de- 
tcroc), Heaven (ovqavog). The heaven of the ancients 
was the regions above us ; first, the expanse in which 
the birds fly and the clouds float ; next, the solid 
concave hemisphere in which the stars are fixed; 
and thirdly, the region directly above, where the gods 
were supposed to dwell. To this last the good were 
finally taken. To these conceptions not only was 
the language of the Scriptures conformed, but also 
the providence of God. Elijah went up in a chariot 
of fire. Christ went upland a cloud received him 
out of sight. Christ had said (John 20 : 17), " I as- 



116 ESCHATOLOGY. 

cend unto my Father and your Father, and to my 
God and your God." 

There are, however, certain facts stated in the 
Scriptures, that bear more directly and decisively on 
the question. Christ, speaking of angels as guardian 
agents to his disciples, says : " Their angels in hea- 
ven (ot ayyskoi aviwv Iv ovQavoTg) do always behold the 
face of my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 18: 
10), implying that while ministering to those who 
shall be heirs of salvation they do, at the same time, 
behold the face of God in heaven. Heaven, then, is 
a state rather than a place. But the place in this in- 
stance is where living men are found. Throughout 
the entire book of Revelation, the angels and the de- 
parted saints are represented as directly observing all 
that transpires on earth, and as moving and acting in 
the midst of the transactions of earth. Paul (Heb. 
12: 22-24) represents the Christian as brought, by 
his faith, to Mount Zion, to the City of the living 
God, the heavenly Jerusalem ; to an innumerable 
multitude, the general assembly of angels ; to the 
church of the first begotten enrolled in heaven ; to 
God the Judge of all ; to spirits of just men per- 
fected, &c. This would seem to imply the mingling 
together of the good of both worlds. By faith we 
see these objects and feel their power, and are in the 
midst of them. Paul elsewhere speaks of " the 
whole family in heaven and upon earth." The con- 



LOCALITY OF HEAVEN. 117 

versation between Christ and Thomas, John 14: 1 
seq. is in point. Thomas understood the Saviour to 
be literally " going away." This Christ denies, and 
tells him for substance that heaven is not a distant 
place, but it is to be realized by a full knowledge of 
Christ himself. The disciples had known something 
of him in this his state of humiliation. But he was 
soon to be invested with glory. They, too, would 
soon, by a change in the mode of their existence, be 
possessed of new powers, and, as a consequence, 
would know him as they did not now : and seeing 
his glory, they would see the glory of the Father also. 
And this would be heaven. Christ was not going 
away, literally, and they to follow him. He was to 
unveil his glory, and they were to be made capable of 
seeing it. The realization of heaven would not im- 
ply a change of place, but of state. They must 
throw off this earthly house of their tabernacle. The 
mortal must put on immortality. 

In keeping with this is the language under consid- 
eration in this Chapter. " The Coming" (being pres- 
ent) of Christ, the Appearing of Christ, the Manifes- 
tation of Christ, all represent Christ as the actor, and 
appearing to the disciple, not the disciple to Christ ; 
and the scene is therefore on the earth — the place 
where the disciple now lives. 

The simple import of 1 Thess. 4 : 14-17 is that 
God is soon to come to us, and bring with him, un- 



118 ESCHATOLOGY. 

der the conduct of an Archangel, all the heavenly- 
hosts, and among these our friends who have died 
before us. We do not go up to heaven; heaven 
comes down to us. The scene is here — in the atmos- 
phere of this world. These bodies are laid aside, 
and with our spiritual bodies we move " in clouds " 
of the sky. See remarks on this text in the Chapter 
on the Resurrection. 

"We would not, however, wish to be understood to 
imply because heaven may be and sometimes is on 
earth, that therefore it must be there and forever. 
" The heavens declare the glory of God." The re- 
motest stars that the telescope brings to our knowl- 
edge, and much more the heavenly bodies nearer, are 
in relations of interest to us. They are bound to us 
by ties indissoluble ; ties that strengthen with years, 
and which death will not destroy. We long to know 
more of those distant worlds. And could we, we 
should there, doubtless, as on our own, see evidences 
of the perfection of the Maker. And these evidences 
would probably be furnished in specific types all un- 
known to earth. 

A benevolent God has implanted in our nature no 
desires that may not and will not, in the appropriate 
time, have their gratification. He who made us with 
longings after knowledge, and the knowledge of all 
things, will gratify those longings. When we look 
out upon the stars of heaven, and ask ourselves, How 



LOCALITY OF HEAVEN. 119 

has God wrought there, -what the methods of his 
skill? we cannot doubt that we shall one day see 
and know. 

Death will doubtless invest us with such new pow- 
ers of perception and investigation, that this world 
will be to us " new heavens and a new earth ; " and 
new and many will be the lessons we shall take, and 
long the study of things here. This will be true of 
the physical natures and relations, and still more of 
the moral interests that are here. Christ and the 
glory of his kingdom will then " appear," and be in- 
vested, to the intellect and the heart, with new inter- 
est — in a length and breadth, and depth and height, 
which have not now " entered into the heart of 
man." 

But this world, with all its past and future history, 
material and mental, will be but a point in compari- 
son with all the works of God. And when earth and 
its realities shall have been learned and enjoyed in 
themselves and as exhibitions of God, so far from 
having exhausted and destroyed, it will but have de- 
veloped in greater vigor the susceptibilities that have 
been addressed and blessed. And to know and en- 
joy God and his works elsewhere and without a 
limit, will be a want of the expanded and growing 
spirit, not to gratify which, would be starvation and 
death. It will be gratified. And heaven, that be- 
gins on earth, will spread itself out over the Universe 



120 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



of God. " Great and marvellous are thy works, 
Lord God Almighty." " Show us thy Glory." Thou 
wilt make all thy goodness to pass before us, and 
proclaim to us in every method of utterance the 
name and glory of Jehovah. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE JUDGMENT. 



The word "judgment" has no such definiteness 
of import in the Bible, as in the language of modern 
jurisprudence. The Hebrew words rendered to 
judge (y^ and b&E)) signify also to govern, to 
rule, to exercise authority. Under the former word 
Gesenius, in his lexicon, remarks, that " the ideas of 
ruling and judging are closely allied, not only in 
Oriental practice and polity, but also in their lan- 
guage." The departments of government in our 
day, so distinct, as legislative, judicial, and execu- 
tive, were unknown in the days of the Bible. The 
king made law, judged of the violation of it, and 
inflicted the penalty. The early chief magistrates 
of the Hebrews were called "judges," which was 
equivalent to rulers. The prerogatives of the judge 
were essentially those of the king at a subsequent 
period. 

The following texts are instances in which God is 
said to judge the world in the large sense of admin- 
istering a righteous government. 

11 (121) 



122 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



Ps. 67 : 4. "0 let the nations be glad and sing for joy : for thou 
shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon 
earth." 

Ps. 96: 10-13. " Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: 
the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved : he shall 
judge the people righteously. (11) Let the heavens rejoice, and let the 
earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. (12) Let the 
field be joyful and all that is therein : then shall all the trees of the 
wood rejoice (13) Before the Lord; for he cometh, for he cometh to 
judge the earth : he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the 
people with his truth." 

Ps. 98 : 8, 9. " Let the hills be joyful together (9) Before the Lord ; 
for he cometh to judge the earth : with righteousness shall he judge the 
world, and the people with equity." 

The following texts are prophetic, and refer to the 
Messiah and his kingdom. 



Ps. 72 : 1-8. "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy right- 
eousness unto the king's son. (2) He shall judge thy people with 
righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. (3) The mountains shall 
bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. (4) He 
shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the 
needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. (5) They shall fear 
thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. 
(6) He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass : as showers 
that water the earth. (7) In his days shall the righteous flourish : and 
abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. (8) He shall have 
dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the 
earth." 

Isa. 2 : 4. "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke 
many people : and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and 
their spears into pruning-hooks." 

Isa. 51 : 4, 5. " Hearken unto me, my people : and give ear unto 
me, O my nation : for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make 
m 7 judgment to rest for a light of the people. (5) My righteousness 
is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the 
people ; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they 
trust." 

Dan. 7 : 22. " Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was 
given to the saints of the Most High ; and the time came that the saints 
possessed the kingdom." See Kev. 20 : 4. 



NEW TESTAMENT. 123 

Micah 4:3. " And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke 
strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plough- 
shares/' &c. 

In the New Testament the words rendered judg- 
ment and to judge (xQiaig, xqi[a,o,, xqivw), though some- 
what more definite, are yet used with latitude. In 
keeping with the state of society at the time, there 
is less of the legislative idea ; but the judicial and 
executive are blended. As in the following texts : 

John 5 : 30. "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I 
judge* and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, 
but the will of the Father which hath sent me." 

John 18: 31. "Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and 
judge him according to your law." 

Acts 23 : 3, 6. " Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, 
thou whited wall : for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and com- 
mandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? " (6) " Of the hope 
and resurrection of the dead I am called in question" (Kpivofica, 
judged) . 

Acts 24 : 6. " Whom we took, and would have judged according to 
our law." 

Acts 25 : 9. " Wilt thou go up to* Jerusalem, and there be judged 
of these things before me ? " 

1 Cor. 5:12. "What have I to do to judge them also that are with- 
out 1 ? Do not ye judge them that are within ? " See chap. 6 : 1-7. 

The idea of punishment is often primary in "judg- 
ment." 

Matt. 23 : 33. " Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye 
escape the damnation {nolo sue, judgment) of hell? " 

Mark 3 : 29. " He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost 
hath never forgiveness, but is , in danger of eternal damnation " 
(fipioeoc, judgment). 

John 5 : 29. " And shall come forth ; they that have done good, 



124 ESCHATOLOGY. 

unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of damnation " (npioeog, judgment). 

Heb. 10 : 27. "A certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery 
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." 

When, then, judgment is attributed to Christ as 
among the functions of Messiahship, nothing more 
may be meant than that he is invested with and ex- 
ercises authority. And he begins the work of 

JUDGMENT WHEN HE RECEIVES THE KINGDOM. The fol- 
lowing texts are in point. 

Matthew 16: 27, 28. 

" For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with 
his angels ; and then he shall reward every man according to his 
works. (28) Yerily I say unto you, There be some standing 
here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man 
coming in his kingdom." 



'o 



These verses, as bearing on the Coming of the 
Son of Man, have been considered in the first 
Chapter. In them are two facts stated with perfect 
distinctness. First, The Son of Man was then just 
about (p&Uet) to come in the glory of his Father and 
with his angels. This language, as we have before 
said, is evidently derived from Dan. 7 : 13, 14, and 
is explained in the following verse to mean " coming 
in his kingdom ) v in other words, entering upon the 
administration of the Christian dispensation — being 
invested with " dominion and glory and a king- 
dom." 



CHRIST IS JUDGE. 125 

But secondly, such administration implies the 
exercise of the judicial and executive functions. 
He will reward every man according to his works. 
And he is to do this then, that is, when he shall 
have been inducted into office. And as if to make 
certainty doubly sure, and to give definiteness to 
the hopes of his disciples, he tells them this shall 
come to pass before some of those present die. 
Theirs should be the personal privilege to see all 
this. 

John 5 : 22, 23, 27. 

" For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judg- 
ment unto the Son : (23) That all men should honor the Son, 
even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son 
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him." (27) "And hath 
given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the 
Son of man." 

Here judgment (xqigiv) means the governmental 
prerogative (v. 23), and "to execute judgment" 
(xqigiv TtoisTv) signifies to exercise the governmental 
and especially the judicial function. This is evident 
from vs. 28, 29, which refer to the final decision. 
True he had not at this time definitively taken upon 
himself the " dominion." But he was soon to do so. 
The hour was coming, when greater works and higher 
prerogatives would be his. See vs. 20, 25, 28. The 
allusion here is like that in the Saviour's reply to the 
high-priest, Matt. 26 : 63, 64 ; and to Nathanael, John 
1 : 49-51. He was not now " the Son of God in 

11* 



126 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



power," but was soon to be so. These verses and 
the context are considered more at length in the 
Chapter on the Resurrection. 

Matthew xxv. 

Verses 31-45. " When the Son of man shall come 
in his glory, and all the holy angels with him," which 
we have shown to be his investiture with the univer- 
sal dominion of the Messiah, then shall he sit upon 
his throne and adjudicate. He will separate the good 
from the bad, pass verdict upon them severally, and 
reward and punish from that time onward. " Judg- 
ment" will be his (John 5: 22). 

Verses 1-13. Here the judicial decision is repre- 
sented as taking place when the Bridegroom comes, 
which, as we have seen, is at death. 

Verses 14-30. "When the lord of the servants 
cometh, he then reckons and awards, that is judges. 
He comes at death. 

Acts 10 : 42, 43. 



Kat irapriyyeiXev tjiuv KTjpv^ai r<p 
/law, teal diafiapTvpaodaL, on avrog 

CGTIV 6 upLO{l£VOQ VTTO TOV &EOV Kpt- 
7T]Q ^6)V70)V Kal VEKptiv. (43) T0VT(J 

Tcavreg ol TrpoorjraL [/.aprvpovciv, 
atieocv cifiapTLwv Tiafielv did. rov bvb- 
fiarog avrov irdvra tov TuarevovTa 
elg avrov. 



And he commanded us to preach 
unto the people, and to testify that 
it is he which was ordained of God 
to be the Judge of quick and dead. 
(43) To him give all the prophets 
witness, that through his name 
whosoever believeth in him shall 
receive remission of sins. 



To him give all the prophets witness, that every 






CHRIST IS JUDGE. 127 

man who believes in him, has received (2 Aorist) for- 
giveness through his name. 

Here Jesus is definitively constituted (coQia/jiivog) 
Judge of the living as well as the dead, and penitent 
men have received forgiveness. From whom ? The 
Judge to whom they are amenable, of course. Jesus, 
then, is continually in the exercise of the functions of 
Judge or King. Every true Christian has been for- 
given. See John 1 : 12. To as many as received 
him he gave the right to be the sons of God (IdoyAtv 
t^ovoiav y Aorist, implying that the act was now com- 
plete and belonged to the past — he has given). John 
3: 36. He that believeth on the Son has (%£*, Pres- 
ent) everlasting life. And the "judgment" is one 
from which there is no appeal, John 5 : 24. He hath 
everlasting life, and comes not (sQ%&tou) into condem- 
nation, but has passed (i*sra{itfr t y.zv) from death unto 
life. 

Acts 17 : 31. 

^Eoirjcev Tjfitpav, kv y yiiJCkn npi- He hath appointed a day, in the 
vetv ttjv oiKovfi£V7]v kv duidtoovvr/, which he will judge the world in 
kv uvdpi 6 upioe, manv napaax^v righteousness by that man whom 
naoiv, uvaarfjaag avrov en venpuv. he hath ordained ; whereof he hath 

given assurance unto all men, in 
that he hath raised him from the 
dead. 

God has instituted a tribunal {fftiiQav as in 1 Cor. 
4: 3 uv$QG3mv?iQ ruiiqag a human tribunal) at which 
he is now ready (iiillu) to judge the world in right- 



128 ESCHATOLOGY. 

eousness by a Man whom he has definitively consti- 
tuted (ojQtos, the same verb as in Rom. 1 : 4 rov oqio- 
■frwrog vlov &eov tv dwdfjiei, definitively constituted Son 
of God in power, as also Acts 10 : 42) and of whom, 
as thus ordained, he has given evidence demanding 
belief of all men in having raised him from the 
dead. 

The verb hrrjoev from hrrj^i does not signify ap- 
point with reference to the future, but establish at the 
present. A reference to the use of this word in the 
Scriptures will make this apparent. See Matt. 26 : 
15. Acts 1:23. 7:60. Rom. 3: 31. 10:3. Heb. 10: 
9. Matt. 18 : 16. John 15 : 16." The text, then, does 
not assert that God has " appointed " a future day 
when he will judge the world, but that he has consti- 
tuted or established a court at which he is now ready 
to judge ihe world by Jesus Christ — " all nations " 
(Matt. 25: 32). And this is given as a reason v. 30 
why God now commandeth all men everywhere to 
repent. He has " anointed the Most Holy," Dan. 
9 : 24, and now whosoever belie veth in him has re- 
ceived (Xafiuv) remission of sins. Acts 10 : 43. 

John 12: 31. 

Nvv Kpiaig hen rov noopov. - Now is the judgment of this 

world. 

Christ had just before said, v. 23, " The hour is 
come that the Son of man should be glorified." 



CHRIST IS JUDGE. 129 

He was now about to become the Son of God. A 
voice from heaven reaffirmed this fact. The Saviour 
then says, " Now is the judgment of this world : 
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And 
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto me." These remarks define and give intensity 
to the " now " of the text. The judgment of this 
world began when Jesus was glorified. He then en- 
tered upon the administration of the Messianic Dis- 
pensation — the work of casting out Satan from the 
dominion of this world and of drawing all men unto 
himself. 

Rev. 22 : 12. 

'Idoi) epxofiat raxv, kcu 6 (iiG-&6g And, behold, I come quickly ; 
fiov fxer' efj-ov, aixodovvat ekuotg) <jc and my reward is with me, to give 
to epyov avrov earac. every man according as his work 

shall be. 

Behold, I come quickly, and my award is with me 
to award to each man as his work shall be. 

These words have been considered in Chap. n. as 
showing that the Coming of the Lord referred to the 
change at death. But they show that " judgment " 
is also one of the great facts of that crisis. This 
text was designed at once to comfort Christians and 
also to admonish the wicked — at any rate to remind 
the faithful that God would vindicate his authority. 
The unjust (v. 11) would for the present have power, 
and act out his injustice ; let him do so, and let those 
of low depravity act out their vulgar wickedness. 



130 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Still let the just and the holy maintain their integ- 
rity. And as a motive aiding them in this difficult 
duty, he repeats the assurance of v. 7 that he shall 
soon come and take them to himself — come and 
award to the Christian and to the persecutor accord- 
ing to his character. In this language, the Saviour 
does most emphatically attribute to himself the judi- 
cial function. And the men then living- were " quick- 
ly " to experience his power, judicial and executive, 
for good or for evil. 

1 Peter 4 : 5. 

01 uTToduGovat Tioyov ru erolfiug Who shall give account to him, 
exovn uplvai ^ibviag nal vtupovg. that is ready to judge the quick 

and the dead. 

"Who shall give account to him who is ready to 
judge the living and the dead. 

None will deny that this language has reference to 
Christ. And certainly it ascribes to him judicial 
power ; and with equal certainty asserts that at the 
time then present, he was authorized to and should 
use it — koifimg 'i^ovxi valval, being in a state of readi- 
ness^ qualified for the present exercise of "judgment" 

2 Peter 2 : 3. 

OZc to npifia EKiraTiai ovu apyel, Whose judgment now of a long 
ml 7) itK0)?ieta avrtiv ov vvotcc&i. time lingereth not, and their dam- 

nation slumbereth not. 

For whom the judgment of olden times (referred 
to in vs. 4-8) lingereth not, &c. 



A DAT OF JUDGMENT. 131 

The Apostle was speaking of the false teachers 
that were troubling the church, as false prophets had 
done of old. And adds, that the punishments of 
former times would not be slow to come upon these 
errorists. He gives instances of the manner in which 
of old God had dealt with sinners, v. 4 seq. The 
Lord knows how to deal with these offenders also. 
He will keep them in suffering for a day of punish- 
ment. * The punishment here referred to is that of 
the future world, v. 12. But that hastened and was 
near, v. 3. And it was to be inflicted by the Lord 
Jesus Christ (xvQiog). 

Matthew 12 : 36. 

Aiyu 6e ifuv, otl ndv {)7]{ia apybv, But I say unto you, That every 

o kuv XaXf/auatv ol uvd-ponoi, cltto- idle word that men shall speak, 

dcjGovot nepl avrov Xoyov hv rj[Mepa they shall give account thereof in 

Kplaeug. the day of judgment. 

In a day of judgment. This contemplates men as 
going individually each to his " day of judgment." 
Every man will have " a day of judgment " — every 
man in his own order, 1 Cor. 15 : 23. 

So also Rom. 2 : 16. They who have sinned with 
the knowledge of the law, shall be judged by the ' 
law (v. 12) in a day (lv rj^Qct) when God judges the 
secrets of men, according to my Gospel, by Jesus 
Christ. All instances of this kind point to the fact 
that each man has his personal day of account with 
Jesus Christ. 



132 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



The reader is referred to that numerous class of 
texts adduced in the preceding Chapter, to show that 
the Judgment and Heaven and Hell as beginning, 
are synchronical with death. 

The following texts are especially relied upon as 
proving the doctrine of a future day of general Judg- 
ment at the end of the world. 

2 Peter 2 : 4, 9. 

'O -&ebg ayyelov ApapTTjcavruv God spared not the angels that 
ovk ktyeioaTO, aXkh. aecpalg C,6<pov sinned, but cast them down to hell, 
raprapuaag TrapidcjKev elg npiciv and delivered them into chains of 
7j]pov(j,evovg. darkness, to be reserved unto judg- 

ment. 
Olds nvptog evaejSslg sk Treipaofiov The Lord knoweth how to de- 
fiveoftai, adiicovg ds elg r^ispav npi- liver the godly out of temptation, 
aetog Kola^ofisvovg rrjpelv. and to reserve the unjust unto the 

day of judgment to be punished. 

Verse 4. God spared not the angels that sinned, 
but, inflicting upon them while in chains of dark- 
ness, the torments of hell, gave them over confined, 
unto (etV, so as that they should experience) judicial 
punishment. 

"We have shown that xqigis often signifies punish- 
ment. See Matt. 23 : 33. Mark 3 : 9. John 5 : 29. 
Heb. 10 : 27. 

Verse 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the 
godly out of temptation, but to keep the unjust tor- 
mented for (etV, so that they should experience) a day 
(period) of punishment. 

The participle (xola&ixsvovg) has its corresponding 



WICKED MEN PUNISHED. 133 

noun (xolaeiv) in the phrase " everlasting punish- 
ment," Matt. 25 : 46, and is in the present tense. 
So in v. 4, the participle (zaQraomaag) denotes, if any 
word in the Greek language can do so, the punish- 
ment of the future world. See Liddell and Scott 
on raQtaQog. 

Nothing can be plainer than that these verbs indi- 
cate the present sufferings of punishment, rather than 
confinement with reference to a future period of 
judgment and infliction. There are no stronger 
terms in the Bible to denote the torments of hell, 
than those employed in these verses. And they in- 
dicate present experience. 

Besides, the connection requires this. God pun- 
ished the angels that sinned ; he punished the ante- 
diluvians and preserved Noah ; he punished the in- 
habitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and delivered 
Lot (the last two are certainly instances of actual 
punishment) ; he will punish these false teachers and 
deliver you. They shall " utterly perish in their own 
corruption," v. 12. 

The word rendered " to be reserved " (r?]Qovjxsvovg) v. 
4, and that in v. 9 rendered " to be punished " (xola- 
tpiiivovg) are both present participles, and should be 
rendered confined and tormented. The idea is that 
they were made the subjects of the infliction of Tar- 
tarus, which in Grecian mythology was the place of 
future punishment. 

12 



134 ESCHATOLOGY. 

JudE vi. 

'Ayye/iovg re Tovg fir) Trjprjcavrag The angels which kept not their 

Ttjv iavTuvupx^v, uKku anoliLKOviag first estate, but left their own hab- 

,rb Ucov oUrjTrjpcov, elg Kpiotv (ieyd- itation, he hath reserved in ever- 

Tjtjq ijfiepag, deo~ t uolg uidioig bird Cp<bov lasting chains under darkness unto 

reTrjprjKev. the judgment of the great day. 

" Hath reserved," &c. He hath confined with 
everlasting chains in darkness for (dg) the punish- 
ment of a great day. The angels had had their 
"great day" of judgment, and had been doomed to 
their painful experience — the blackness of darkness 
forever. For the use of stg in this sense, see Robin- 
son's Lexicon Elg 3. d. 

2 Timothy 4: 1, 2. 

Aiafiaprvpoftac ovv kyu evumov I charge thee therefore before 

tov &eoi>, Kal tov nvpiov 'Irjoov God and the Lord Jesus Christ, 

Xpiorov rov [teXXovTog npivetv Qhv- who shall judge the quick and the 

Tag nal veapovg Kai a ttjv kiutyaveiav dead at his appearing and his 

avTov Kal ttjv j3aocXelav ainoi). (2) kingdom; (2) Preach the word, 

Kr)pv^ov tov "Koyov. &c. 

For vs-AQOvg nam Ttjv, &c, some manuscripts of good 
authority read vsxQovg, xai t/<v. It will then read - 

" I solemnly declare to you, before God and the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who is about to judge the living 
and the dead, his appearing and his kingdom. 
Preach the word," &c. 

Of the appearing and the kingdom in its glory of 
Jesus Christ, we have spoken in a former Chapter. 
An appeal to it as a motive was common with the 
Apostles. Paul here solemnly affirms the great fact, 



TEMPORAL JUDGMENT. 135 

and in view of it would have Timothy preach the 
Gospel; be instant in season, out of season. Ob- 
serve Christ is about to judge {jiikXavtog). 

In favor of the above reading, it should be ob- 
served that the common version implies a use of the 
verb (8iaixaQTVQO{iai) and a construction altogether 
peculiar ; while our rendering in its transitive force 
is common. See Acts 28 : 23. " Testified the king- 
dom of God." Also- Acts 18 : 5. 20 : 20. 23 : 11. 

As preliminary to the consideration of Matt. 11 : 
20-24, and 12 : 41, 42, it may be remarked, that the 
phrase "a day of judgment" in the times of the New 
Testament and those preceding, seems to have taken 
the place of, or to have been used with the same sig- 
nificance as the Old Testament phrase " a day of 
the Lord," that is, a day of temporal calamity upon 
cities or communities (Isa. 2: 12. 13:6,9. 34:6. 
Joel 1 : 15. 3 : 14). As evidence of this change, see 
Judith 16 : 17, where " a day of judgment " (the arti- 
cle is wanting) refers to the destruction of Holo- 
fernes and the rout of his army. Also Esther (Apoc.) 
10 : 12, where " day of judgment " has reference to 
the triumphs of Mordecai and the Jews and the 
slaughter of their enemies. There is in these cases 
no reference to a future world. 

Matthew 11 : 20-24. 

20) Tore rjp^aro dveidt&cv rag (20) Then began he to upbraid 
-KoKetg ev dig cyevovro at Trletarai the cities wherein most of his 



136 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



6vvd(j.eig avrov, on ov fzerevorjcav. 
(21) Oval col, "KopaQv, oval cot, 
Br/dcaldd' on el ev Tvpu kcu 
1il6C)vl eyevovro al Svvdfxetg al 
■yevdfievai ev vftcv, ixakat dv ev 

CUKK(J KCU CTToSu flSTCVOTJOaV. (22) 

rcTJfjv Myu vfilv, Tvpu> Kal HtdcJvt 
dvEKrorepov earat ev 7)/J.epa Kplceug, 
rj vfuv. (23) Kal cv, Karrepva- 
ov[jl, 7} ecog rov ovpavov vipuOelca, 
ecog a8ov KaTafiifiacdrjcr)' on el ev 
?>od6[jLOL(; eyevovro al dvvdfieig al 
yevofievac ev cot, efisivav dv \iexpi 
TTjQ crj[iepov. (24) ttTitjv leya> vfuv, 
on yf) 'EoSofiuv dvenrdrepov ear at ev 
V{iepa Kplceug, fj col. 



mighty works were done, because 
they repented not. (21) Woe un- 
to thee Chorazin, woe unto thee 
Bethsaida : for if the mighty 
works which were done in you, 
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, 
they would have repented long 
ago in sackcloth and ashes. (22) 
But I say unto you, It shall be 
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon 
at the day of judgment, than for 
you. (23) And thou Capernaum, 
which art exalted unto heaven, 
shalt be brought down to hell : for 
if the mighty works which have 
been done in thee, had been done 
in Sodom, it would have remained 
until this day. (24) But I say 
unto you, That it shall be more 
tolerable for the land of Sodom, 
in the day of judgment, than for 
thee. 



" Long ago," v. 21. Formerly^ that is, in their 
day. 

In both instances of the phrase " day of judg- 
ment " it will be noticed that the article is wanting. 
It shall be more tolerable . . . . in a day of judgment. 

Tyre and Sidon had had in repeated instances a 
day of judgment, and were destined to experience 
others. But none of them had been or would be so 
terrible as that " day of judgment " which was to 
come upon these cities of the Jews, who rejected 
their own Messiah. So of Sodom : when the judg- 
ments of God should come upon the Jews, and they 
could be compared with what befell the inhabitants 



TEMPORAL JUDGMENT. 137 

of the cities of the plain, it would be seen that the 
former were more awful than the latter. 

This interpretation is confirmed by the manner in 
which Luke relates this language of the Saviour. 

Luke 10: 8-16. "And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they 
receive you, eat such things as are set before you: (9) And heal the 
sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come 
nigh unto you. (10) But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they re- 
ceive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, 
(11) Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe 
off against you: notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom 
of God is come nigh unto you. (12) But I say unto you, that it shall 
be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. (13) Woe 
unto thee Chorazin ! woe unto thee Bethsaida ! for if the mighty 
works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in 
you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and 
ashes. (14) But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the 
judgment than for you. (15) And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted 
to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. (16) He that heareth you, 
heareth me ; and he that despiseth you despiseth me ; and he that des- 
piseth me despiseth him that sent me." 

From this we learn that Matt. 11 : 20-24 above, 
was uttered immediately after the instructions that 
Christ gave to the Seventy. They were to go to the 
cities in their course, and say to them, " The King- 
dom of God has come near to you." If the inhab- 
itants received the message, well; but if not, they 
were to shake off the dust from their feet, and leave 
them — saying, however, as they went, " The King- 
dom of God has come near." * "When the messen- 

* "To you," in v. 11, is not genuine, and was probably inserted by 
some transcriber because it was found in v. 9. — See Knapp. 

12* 



138 ESCHATOLOGY. 

gers went to a city with the message of the Saviour, 
the kingdom had come near to them indeed. And 
when they rejected the message, it was still true that 
the kingdom was at hand. And if it might not 
bring to them its blessings, it would still be near and 
bring blessings to others ; but it would bring to them 
fearful judgments. If it might not bring good, it 
would bring evil. The disciples of Christ under- 
stood w r ell this allusion to the fact that the over- 
throw of the Jews was to come in connection with 
the introduction of the Messianic dispensation. The 
Saviour adds, The doom of Sodom will, in that 
day — the day to which he had alluded in v. 11 — 
be more tolerable, than the doom of that city. The 
sufferings of that city will be seen to be greater 
than the sufferings of Sodom. 

Verse 14. The doom of Tyre and Sidon will be 
more tolerable in the judgment (tv -nj xgurec) than 
theirs. 

The language used to denote the time of these 
evils to the Jews, is to be noticed. In v. 11 it is 
significantly said that the Kingdom of God was 
near ; with the advent of which the destruction of 
the Jews was an associate event. In v. 12 it is 
called " that day," assuming that it was understood 
by the Seventy. In v. 14 it is called " the judg- 
ment," that is, the well-known judgment before 
alluded to. A reference to the teachings of the 



TEMPORAL JUDGMENT. 139 

Saviour will make it apparent that with this subject 
the disciples must be entirely familiar. The Com- 
ing of the Kingdom of Christ and the contempora- 
neous destruction of the Jews, " that day," and " the 
judgment," are placed in such connection as to 
show that they refer to contemporaneous events. 

It is objected to the preceding that it is represent- 
ed as future : " It shall he more tolerable for Sodom," 
&c, implying that Sodom was, in the future, to meet 
its judgment. There is less of this import in the 
Greek than in the translation. The adjective trans- 
lated "more tolerable" (dvextorsQOv) is neuter, and 
refers in general to the destruction of Sodom on the 
one hand, and that of these modern cities on the 
other. It may be understood to agree with some 
such word as sufferings or doom. Thus, The doom 
of Sodom, in that day, will be more tolerable than 
the doom of that city. The attention of course was 
fixed with intensity upon the future but hastening 
calamities of the Jews. The scene was in the future. 
A comparison of that scene with another of its kind 
was to be instituted. But the two facts must both 
exist before they can be compared. The Saviour 
therefore says, In the day when these painful calami- 
ties shall come upon this guilty city, the doom of 
Sodom will be a more tolerable doom, that is, this 
will be the feeling of the" observer in the comparison 
of the two. 



140 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Matthew 12 : 41, 42. 

"Avdpec Nivevtrai avacTqoovTai ev The men of Nineveh shall rise in 
ry Kplaet fieru rfjg yeveag ravrrjg, nal judgment with this generation, and 
KCLTanpLvovGLv avTTjV on fj.sTevo7]cav shall condemn it, because they re- 
etQ to KTjpvyfia 'luvd ' nal idov, tvTie- pented at the preaching of Jonas, 
lov 'lova ufa. (42) ftacLkLccavoTov and behold, a greater than Jonas 
kyep-&r]aeraL ev ry npicei fxera rijc is here. (42) The queen of the 
yevedc ravT7]c, nal naTanpivel avrrjv • south shall rise up in the judgment 
on rjlftev ek tuv neparuv rrjg yrjg with this generation, and shall con- 
anovocu rqv cotyiav 'LoTvofitivog ' nal demn it : for she came from the ut- 
l5ov } nXslov Iiohofxuvog tide. termost parts of the earth to hear 

the wisdom of Solomon, and be- 
hold, a greater than Solomon is 
here. 

The "judgment" is "with this generation." It 
is a judgment that relates to them and is coming into 
their midst. This is the most natural construction. 
It is — of commentators before us — that of Eras- 
mus, Doddridge, Rosenmueller, Kuinoel, Robinson.* 
Also of the translators of the Bible. For a similar 
use of the preposition (^tra, with), see 1 Cor. 6 : 6, 7. 
Rom. 2: 16. 11: 7. 12: 17. 13: 7. 1 John 4: 17. Heb. 
12: 14. John 3: 25. Luke 1: 72. 10: 37. There are 
indeed authorities for giving to this preposition the 
sense of " in the midst of," and making it connect 
" shall rise " and " this generation." But this is not 
the most natural rendering. 

The judgment, then, is not the general judgment 
but a particular judgment, and that relates to that 



* See Eob. Lex. 'Eyeipo), b. y. 






TEMPORAL JUDGMENT. 141 

generation; — to it, not as composed of individuals, 
each of whom should meet his own judgment, in his 
individual capacity, but to the generation as such^ to 
the community or nation considered as a unit. See 
Matt. 23 : 34-38. " AU the righteous blood shed upon 
the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel . . . 
shall come upon this generation." 

This generation was wicked beyond a precedent. 
Nineveh repented with only the preaching of Jonas. 
Sodom would have repented with the means then 
employed upon the Jews, and been standing at that 
day. The Queen of the South, from only a distant 
report of Solomon and his religion, came from the 
uttermost parts of the earth to see that of which she 
had heard. But these Jews with their own Messiah 
in their midst, uttering the truths of the Kingdom of 
God, from his own lips divine, and giving attestation 
of his Messiahship by miracles multitudinous and 
such in kind as the world had never seen, was " de- 
spised and rejected," and would soon be put to death. 
In the scenic style of the day, the Saviour says, that 
when shall come "the judgment with this genera- 
tion," the men of Nineveh Will rise from the dead 
(dvaGtijGovrai, the same word as in 1 Thess. 4: 17), 
and the Queen of the South will also come up from 
her grave (I'/eQ&ijaerat, the same verb as in Matt. 27: 
52 and 1 Cor. 15 : 52), and they will appear as wit- 
nesses against this generation — the rejectors of the 



142 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Messiah. Of course this is not to be understood 
literally. 

That the " day of judgment " in these cases has 
reference to the infliction of temporal evils is evident. 

1. It is the judgment of a generation, and of a city. 
Generations and cities as such, do not go to the judg- 
ment of a future world. And the hypothesis that 
the judgment here spoken of is that of the future 
world, would imply that we are to consider the indi- 
viduals of these places and this time, as going to 
judgment to give up their personal and individual 
accounts and receive their doom one by one. And 
we shall have a very great variety of character, and 
a corresponding variety of punishment, both in the 
ancient cities and in the then existing cities. And 
to institute a comparison between cities and commu- 
nities thus judged and punished, the average of char- 
acter and doom must be that on which such com- 
parison can be instituted. But is this, can this be 
what the language under consideration means ? 

2. The evils threatened are temporal evils. In the 
case of the cities named this is evident from the fact 
that the comparison of their doom is with temporal 
evils. Sodom would have repented . and " remained 
to this day ; " but was destroyed by fire. Tyre and 
Sidon had before had days of judgment, and were to 
experience other and more terrible, especially the 
former city, which has been utterly destroyed. Ca- 



TEMPORAL JUDGMENT. 143 

pemaum had been elevated to heaven, but was to be 
thrust down to hell — temporal the prosperity, so also 
the ruin. 

That the same is true of the "judgment with this 
generation " is obvious from the connection. It is 
immediately added (Matt. 12:43-45), "When the 
unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh 
through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 
(44) Then he saith, I will return unto my house from 
whence I came out ; and when he is come, he findeth 
it empty, swept, and garnished. (45) Then goeth he, 
and taketh with himself seven other spirits more 
wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell 
there : and the last state of that man is worse than 
the first. Even so shall it be also unto this ivicked 
generation" It — the generation — is ripe for de- 
struction. From Luke (11 : 37-51) we learn that the 
Saviour went on to say immediately after, and while 
dining with a Pharisee, those fearful things which 
close with the announcement that the blood of all the 
prophets is to be required of this generation ; which 
means (Matt. 23: 35-38) that their house should be 
left unto them desolate. Their Temple would be 
destroyed and its worship cease ; their city razed to 
the ground. 

3. It is in keeping with much that the Saviour has 
elsewhere said. See Matt. 3: 9-12. 13: 24-30, 36- 
43, 47-51. 21: 33-45, 22: 1-10. Mark 12: 1-12. 



144 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Luke 19: 11-27. 20: 9-18. And it was taught 
"without a parable," Matt. 23:34-39. 24: 1 seq. 
Luke 19: 41-44. 21: 5-36. Nothing was more 
prominent on the face of Christ's teaching than that 
Jerusalem was to be destroyed. The axe stood at 
the root of the tree ; the fan was in the hand ; expur- 
gation and destruction were near. The tares and 
the wheat would grow together for a while, but the 
harvest would soon come, when the tares would be 
burned. And the harvest was the end of this dispen- 
sation (alojvog tovrov). 

4. And finally, what would the disciples under- 
stand by this language — "a day of judgment," 
" that day," " the judgment ? " It should be remem- 
bered that the rewards and punishments of the Mo- 
saic Institute were exclusively temporal. Not an 
allusion is found, in the case either of individuals or 
communities in which reference is made to the good 
or evil of a future world as motive to obedience. 
The men addressed by the Saviour had been edu- 
cated under that Institute, and were of course famil- 
iar with its facts and phraseology. And if, moreover, 
we take into account the various methods, referred to 
in the texts above quoted, by which the disciples had 
been taught to look for temporal destruction as soon 
to come upon their country ; and yet more, that such 
destruction was distinctly predicted (Dan. 9 : 26. 12 : 
1, — this last almost the very words which Jesus em- 



TEMPORAL JUDGMENT. 145 

ploys, Matt. 24: 21), can we doubt how the disciples 
would understand this language ? It would seem 
that nothing can be more certain than that the one 
and sole idea conveyed to their minds was that of 
the temporal destruction so soon to come upon the 
Jews. 

We come to the conclusion, then, that Matt. 10 : 
15. 11 : 20-24. 12 : 41, 42. Luke 11 : 31, 32, do not 
teach that there is a particular time when, in the 
future world, all the race will be assembled and judg- 
ment passed upon them. 

But if it be otherwise with any of our readers, and 
they must still claim " the judgment " to be that of 
the future world, and that at the time when these 
words were uttered, it was both to the inhabitants of 
the ancient cities and to those of the modern yet fu- 
ture ; then for them we fall back upon such texts as 
the following : 

Acts 10 : 42. He commanded us to preach unto 
the people, and to testify that it is he who was con- 
stituted by God judge of the living and the dead. 

Here we are informed that the jurisdiction of 
Christ is over both this and the unseen world — in- 
cluding of course in the latter the men of then past 
generations. 

Acts 17 : 30, 31. The times of this ignorance God 
winked at ; but now commands all men everywhere 
to repent, because he has established a court in which 

13 



146 ESCHATOLOGY. 

he is ready, through that Man whom he has definitive- 
ly constituted to judge the world in righteousness. 

This may teach that, previous to the coming of 
Christ, God had not treated men who sinned as sin- 
ners were to be treated subsequently. They had 
" sinned without law," and would "perish without 
law." They had not been informed of a judgment 
after death, and would not meet it as we must meet 
it. But now a court had been organized, and a 
Judge appointed, and God has given the ground for 
faith in this great fact in that he raised him from the 
dead. What was the state of the ante-Messianic 
dead, and in what sense, if any, they were unjudged, 
we will not assume to say. But that Christ inaugu- 
rated in the unseen as really as in this world a New 
Dispensation, would seem to be revealed. And if 
the inhabitants, as individuals, of Sodom and Go- 
morrah, as well as those of Chorazin and Bethsaida, 
had at that time a judgment before Christ then fu- 
ture to meet, it was in accordance with the processes 
of succeeding dispensations. At any rate, in the 
day of Acts 17 : 31 God was ready and then about 
to judge all men ; and from that time the court has 
been open and in process. 

That the New Dispensation, the Kingdom of 
Christ, is in part and in chief part in the unseen 
world, is evident from the fact that the Apostles ever 
represent the death of believers as being or implying 



CHRIST JUDGES THE DEAD. 147 

" the appearing," " the manifestation," or unveiling 
of the glory of Christ and his kingdom. Here we 
see and know but in part. 

In point in this connection is John 12 : 31, " Now 
is the judgment of this world : now shall the prince 
of this world be cast out." There is " now " a judg- 
ment of this world, and of the prince of this world, 
that is peculiar to the Christian Dispensation. What 
this may imply of those who had lived before Christ, 
we seem not to have the means of definitely learn- 
ing. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE RESURRECTION. 



There attend upon the thought of dying two 
questions, than which none can be more important : 
— Shall we exist beyond the grave ? and if so, 
What will be the conditions of that existence ? 
These questions present the subject of this Chapter. 
In regard to the second question we shall consider 
only the constitutional element of the future life. 

OLD TESTAMENT. 

We have had occasion repeatedly to remark, that 
the Old Testament saints had but very inadequate 
ideas of a Future State. In the book of Job — 
" the oldest book in the world " — there are frequent 
allusions to such a state ; but it is a world of mere 
existence, of ghosts, of silence, darkness, and passivity. 
It is not heaven, nor a world to be desired. It is 
scarcely hell. There is perhaps a single allusion to 
punishment as inflicted after death, but it is spoken 

(148) 



OLD TESTAMENT. 149 

of as the opinion of " travellers " or men from other 
nations (21 : 29, 30). But the man of Uz had no such 
views of the future world as to explain the mystery 
of his calamities as a good man. Still less his 
friends. See Job 7 : 9, 10. 10 : 20-22. 14 : 7-14, 18- 
22. 16:22. 17:1,11-16. 

In the Pentateuch we find no motives drawn from 
the future world. The Saviour teaches us that the 
doctrine of a future existence beyond the grave is 
implied in the words that came from the midst of 
the burning bush : " I am the God of thy father, the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob." Yet, but for such interpretation we might 
not have felt authorized to find here such a meaning, 
or to understand any thing other than that He who 
addressed Moses was the same who had been to the 
Patriarchs a God, and would be such to him as he 
had been to them. He had guided and protected 
them, he would guide and protect him. 

Even David could say, " In death there is no re- 
membrance of thee : in the grave who shall give 
thee thanks ? " Ps. 6 : 5. Hezekiah in his sickness 
said, " The grave (Sheol) cannot praise thee, death 
cannot celebrate thee : they that go down into the 
pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, 
he shall praise thee, as I do this day : the father to 
the children shall make known thy truth." Isa. 38 : 
18, 19. 

13* 



150 ESCHATOLOGY. 

The Old Testament makes no allusion to the 
mode of existence that succeeds the present. Some 
have considered Job (19 : 25-27) as speaking very 
definitively on the subject of the resurrection of the 
body. But when we consider the allusions elsewhere 
made by this same author, and that this book prob- 
ably antedates all the other portions of the Sacred 
Volume — its author and its hero both having lived, 
as is supposed, before Moses — the supposition of a 
clear and definite statement of the doctrine of the 
Resurrection, is preposterous. What Job in this pas- 
sage, rightly interpreted, says, is, " I know that my 
Deliverer * lives. And erelong he who now lies in 
the dust will arise (i. e. to health). Although my 
skin is consumed, I shall yet in this body see God," 
that is, as the language of the Orient, He will be my 
friend, and admit me to his presence. 

Dan. 12 : 2, 3. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlast- 
ing contempt. (3) And they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness 
of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the 
stars forever and ever." 



3^5 signifies to redeem, also to deliver, or rescue. It is applied to 
Jehovah as delivering his people from bondage (Ex. 6:6), from Baby- 
lonian captivity (Isa. 43: 1). It is applied to man as regaining pos- 
session, of land under mortgage (Lev. 25 : 26). Robinson renders it 
thus : a I know that my Redeemer liveth, i. e. God himself, who will de- 
liver me from these calamities." Heb. Lex. See Knapp, Theol. II. 
614. 



OLD TESTAMENT. 151 

This is supposed by many to refer to the Resurrec- 
tion. But it is surprising that in a connection where 
the boldest imagery is all along employed in predict- 
ing the future, this particular portion should be con- 
strued literally. Besides, the connection of thought 
forbids us to understand the language as referring to 
a distant future — the end of the world. The bur- 
den of the visions that Daniel saw, was the then fu- 
ture history of the Jews. The interpreter was sent 
to tell him what was to befall his people in the latter 
day. In chap. xi. he had brought down that history 
to the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. After this, 
Michael would stand up for them. A degree of com- 
parative rest was given them from this time to near 
the time of their destruction. The Romans, indeed, 
made them a sort of colony, but they were left in 
the free exercise of their religion ; and their external 
prosperity was not seriously impaired. But there 
was then to Come a time of trouble, such as there 
never was since there was a nation. But then — 
singular language — " thy people shall be delivered, 
every one that shall be found written in the bookP 
This language is most obviously referred to in Matt. 
24 : 21, as having its fulfilment in the facts of that 
day. Says the Saviour, in almost the very language 
of the prophet, " Then shall be great tribulation, 
such as was not since the. beginning of the world to 
this time, no, nor ever shall be." And then, as pre- 



152 ESCHATOLOGY. 

dieted, God's people — those who were really such, 
and whose names were written in the Lamb's book 
of life — were delivered. Christ gave to his disciples 
so definite a statement of what should* be the signs 
of this day of evil, that they were enabled to flee to 
a place of safety. 

Next in order in the vision of the prophet, vs. 2, 
3, the dead were raised. A life-giving power was to 
go forth and stir up, as in their graves, the very dead. 
Some would awake, and as " wise " or " teachers," 
live a glorious life, and turn many to righteousness : 
while others, rejecting the proffered grace, would find 
it a savor of death unto death. This we understand 
to refer to the Gospel, and to its proclamation not to 
the Jews merely, but to the " many ; " and especially 
to the Gentiles, who were, as not true of the Jews, 
asleep in the very dust of the earth. The language 
indicates the coming in of the Christian Dispensa- 
tion, and the effect of the means of grace in Christ 
Jesus upon the world, Gentiles as well as Jews. 

We are happy to be able to quote the following 
from Matthew Henry. In his commentary on v. 2, 
he says : " When upon the appearing of Michael 
our prince, his gospel is preached, many of them that 
sleep in the dust, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be 
awakened by it, to take upon them a profession of 
religion, and shall rise out of their Heathenism or 
Judaism ; but since there will be always a mixture 



OLD TESTAMENT. 153 

of hypocrites, with true saints ; it is but some of 
them that are raised to life, to whom the gospel is a 
savor of life unto life, but others will be raised by it 
to shame and contempt, to whom the gospel of Christ 
will be a savor of death unto death, and Christ him- 
self set for their fall. The net of the gospel inclos- 
eth both good and bad." 

We cannot agree with Henry in supposing that 
by Michael is meant the Messiah ; and from some of 
his specific applications should therefore dissent. 
We quote him as sustaining the exegesis that by 
"- many that sleep in the dust of the earth," is to be 
understood the " dead in trespasses and sins." These 
are awakened to spiritual life. 

Rev. George Judkin, D. D., President of Lafay- 
ette College, in his Treatise on the Prophecies, 
makes the following comment on v. 2 : " The chro- 
nology of the writer leads us here to understand this 
of the same spiritual awakening- ; and yet the force 
of the language in our English translation has led 
most commentators to the conclusion that a real 
bodily resurrection is intended. . . . The natural and 
proper force of the language does not at all involve 
the idea of dead bodies of men coming to life again ; 
but only of persons in a careless and secure condi- 
tion being aroused, rather arousing themselves, to 
vigorous action, shaking off the dust of indolence, 
and calling their powers forth into exercise. . . . 



154 ESCHATOLOGY. 

The very clods of Gentilism, the sleeping ones of 
earthly clay, shall stir themselves up, and inquire 
after the Lord. . . . The cold earth that has slept 
for ages in all the darkness of paganism and delu- 
sion, shall be thrown into vast commotion. The 
blinded heathen, ' multitudes, multitudes in the val- 
ley of decision,' and all over the world, shall rouse 
up and act vigorously in reference to religion and 
eternal things. Of the vast masses of mankind who 
shall thus be brought into energetic action, some will 
inquire successfully and find the way to salvation, 
' and so live forever ; ' ' some to everlasting life ; ' 
— others will spend their faculties in perverting and 
opposing the truth, as the Romans, Pagans, and 
the Mohammedan-^pagans, and all forms of heretics 
now do, and shall utterly perish ' in shame and ever- 
lasting contempt.' . . . 

" By the context and the natural force of the orig- 
inal terms we are shut up to this interpretation, and 
must conclude that we have in it the mind of the 
Spirit. These words do not teach a resurrection of 
the body? 

LATEE JEWS. 

At a later period we find a more practical convic- 
tion of a future existence. It was regarded as decid- 
edly a state of rewards and punishments. The 
" seven brethren with their mother " (2 Mace, vii.), 



LATEK JEWS. 155 

who suffered martyrdom under Antiochus Epiphanes, 
were sustained by the expectation of a blessed here- 
after. Said one of them in the agonies of a cruel 
death (v. 9), " Thou like a fury takest us out of this 
present life, but the King of the world shall raise us 
up who have died for his laws, unto everlasting life " 
(eig alcoviov dva{)L(06iv ^corjg rj[A,ag dvaatfjGsi, will raise us to 
an everlasting' revival of life — a revivification that 
shall know no succeeding death). — Another, when 
dying, said (v. 14), "It is good, being put to death 
by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up 
again (rtdliv dvaatrfitotiai). As for thee (Antiochus), 
thou shalt have no resurrection to life " (dvdaxaaig elg 
^co^). 

With the men of this period the philosophy of a 
future state was crude and undefined. They seemed 
to think of the future life as much like the present, 
— with the same or a similar material organization. 
Thus, one of the brothers, when his hands were 
about to be cut off, and his tongue plucked out, said, 
" These I had from Heaven ; and for His laws I de- 
spise them ; and from him I hope to receive them 
again" (v. 11). And the mother said to the sons 
(v. 23), " Doubtless the Creator of the world . . . 
will also of his own mercy give you breath and life 
again" (to Ttvsvpa xal rrjv &?jv). — B-azis, when sink- 
ing under his wounds, " plucked out his bowels, and 
taking them in both his hands, he cast them upon 



156 ESCHATOLOGY. 

the throng ; and calling upon the Lord of life and 
spirit to restore him those again, he thus died." — 
2 Mace. 14: 46. See also 12: 43-45. 

The Jews of this period made no distinction be- 
tween the future state and the resurrection of the body. 
They conceived of the soul as living only in a state 
of corporeity. By dvdaraoig (anastasis)* they ex- 
pressed the future condition of man. Knapp, who is 
high authority on such subjects, says, " Both among 
the later Jews and earlier Christian writers, there is 
no distinction made between immortality and the 
resurrection ; both are considered as the same thing? 
And he adds, — strangely inconsistent with his own 
belief, — " It is the same erequently in the New 
Testament." — Theology, II. p. 616. This is pre- 
cisely our doctrine. It is the doctrine of the Bible 
rightly interpreted. 

Josephus says (Ant. B. 18, chap. I. sec. 3), " They 
(the Pharisees) also believe that souls have an im- 
mortal vigor in them, and that under the earth there 
will be rewards or punishments according as they 
have lived virtuously or viciously in this life, and 
that the latter are to be detained in an everlasting 
prison, but that the former shall have power to re- 



* 'AvacnaccQ. It will be convenient on the following pages to Angli- 
cize this word. We shall use Anastasis to signify the future life — life 
beyond the grave. The verb anastasize will also be used. 



NEW TESTAMENT. 157 

vive and live again " (taig 8s Qaazcovrjv rov dvafiiovv). 
He afterwards says (B. II. ch. 8, sec. 14) of the 
Pharisees, " They say that all the souls are incorrupt- 
ible, but that the souls of good men only are re- 
moved into other bodies ([inapaiveiv elg treQov <jw[ia,) 
but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal 
punishment." This explains the extract from the 
Antiquities. In this last quotation it is said that 
the Pharisees believe the souls only of good men pass 
into other bodies. But Paul tells us the Jews (and 
it must be the Pharisees and not the Sadducees who 
believe that the soul dies with the body) allow that 
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the 
just and unjust. Hence we see that in the language 
of that day " resurrection " implies future existence, 
irrespective of the connection of the soul with a 
body. Both the righteous and the wicked are to 
experience a resurrection : the good only to have a 
future body, 

NEW TESTAMENT. 

But what are the teachings of the New Testa- 
ment Scriptures? To these we reverently turn. 
We ask, simply, what do they, rightly interpreted, 
import? We have no sympathy with those who 
think the Apostles were in error; none with those 
who put a forced construction upon the inspired 
words, in accommodation to a philosophical theory. 

14 



158 ESCHATOLOGY. 

The Bible itself is profoundly philosophical. We 
have no thought of setting the sun by our dial. We 
are not satisfied with any interpretation that does 
not make the Bible consistent with itself. And 
when such commentators as Locke, Jonathan Ed- 
wards, Barnes, Olshausen, Arnold, and others think 
the Apostles were in error on some of the points on 
which they have written in the Sacred Volume, we 
cease to follow with confidence their interpretation. 
We seek an exegesis of the inspired language that 
will make it harmonize with itself and with all 
truth. 

Matthew 22 : 23-32. 

" The same day came to him the Sadducees, "which say that 
there is no resurrection, and asked him, (24) Saying, Master, 
Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall 
marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. (25) Now 
there were with us seven brethren : and the first, when he had 
married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto 
his brother : (26) Likewise the second also, and the third, unto 
the seventh. (27) And last of all the woman died also. (28) 
Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven ? 
for they all had her. (29) Jesus answered and said unto them, 
ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 
(30) For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given 
in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. (31) But 
as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that 
which was spoken unto you by God, saying, (32) I am the God 
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? God 
is not the God of the dead, but of the living." 

The Sadducees say there is no Anastasis, and it is 
added, Acts 23 : 8, " neither angel, nor spirit." " The 



SADDUCEAN OBJECTION, 159 

doctrine of the Sadducees is this, that souls die with 
the bodies » (Ant. B. 18. ch. I. 4). 

" They take away the belief of the immortal dura- 
tion of the soul, and the punishments and rewards 
of Hades " (Wars, B. 2. ch. viii. 14). 

It was with these opinions they proposed the case 
of the woman who had had seven husbands. The 
inquiry contains in itself the evidence that by Anas- 
tasis they meant future state. " In the Anastasis 
whose wife shall she be of the seven ? " They could 
not of course mean to ask, whose wife she should 
be in the act or at the moment of raising the bodies 
at the end of the world. But whose should she be 
in the future state — in which future state they did 
not believe. 

The answer of Christ is equally decisive. " In 
the Anastasis they neither marry, nor are given in 
marriage." The Saviour surely did not gravely 
assert that amid the wonderful and miraculous 
events of what is called the last day — as supposed 
to be described literally in 1 Thess. 4 : 16, 17. 1 Cor. 
15: 51, 52 ; and 2 Peter 3: 10, people would not be 
occupied in the affairs of wedlock. He meant to 
say and did say that in the future state they neither 
marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the 
angels of God in heaven, — which last expression 
also refers not to an act, or a process, or a brief mo- 
ment of time, but to a state of being. And what 



160 ESCHATOLOGY. 

was the force of the argument from the Old Testa- 
ment ? Not that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob 
had received or were some thousands of years there- 
after to receive bodies into union Vvdth their spirits, 
but simply that they were in existence — which the 
Sadducees did not believe. This was an argument 
" touching the Anastasis." On the other hypothesis 
of explanation of the language, it certainly would 
not touch the Sadducees or their case supposed. Dr. 
Dwight ( Theology ', Ser. 165) renders dvdataaig, by 
" future existence," and adds, " So far as I have 
observed it usually denotes our existence beyond the 
grave" Campbell's translation is, " The same day 
came Sadducees to him who say that there is no 
future life." 

Acts 23 : 6. 24 : 15. 

" When Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and 
the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and breth- 
ren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee : of the hope and 
resurrection of the dead I am called in question." 

" And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, 
that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and 
unjust." 

" Shall be a resurrection," dvdataaiv pelleiv 'iozadca. 
It may be worthy of notice in passing that peUf.iv 
implies that the Anastasis is that which is " about 
to be," and contradicts the common theory. Paul's 
" hope " was that the Anastasis was soon to be. 



ANASTASIS OF JUST AND UNJUST. 161 

It should be remembered that the question of the 
day, as of any importance was, not one of the mode 
of existence in a future state, but the fact of such 
state. Paul therefore would not be very likely to 
allude to a minor point. It would be the primary 
question of a future existence. The statement of 
Festus is in support of this position, Acts 25 : 14-21. 
There were certain questions of their superstition 
and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul 
affirmed to be alive. If Jesus was alive it would 
imply that there was a future state. If there was 
no such future state, then Jesus was not alive. This 
is Paul's argument in 1 Cor. xv. This is confirmed 
by his allusion to the subject in his place before 
Agrippa, Acts 26: 6-8. He is accused because he 
hopes in the Messiah who was promised to the 
fathers. And Jesus was that Messiah. He had in- 
deed died, but he had risen again, and had been seen 
alive after his passion, and in all the vigor of an im- 
mortal and spiritual Saviour. He had appeared to 
him personally, on his way to Damascus, Acts 26 : 
12—18. Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
that God should raise the dead ? And if not, then 
why not admit the claims to the Messiahship of 
Jesus ? How evident that the question of the rein- 
vestiture of the soul with a body some thousands of 
years thereafter could not be the matter in hand — 
the thing signified by the word Paul so often uses — 

14* 



162 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



dvdataoig. How certainly it must, in the use of it in 
this case, mean existence after death. Again, it was 
Paul's hope. " Of the hope and resurrection of the 
dead," 23 : 6. "I have hope towards God, that there 
will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just 
and unjust," 24 : 15. What was the hope of Paul ? 
A glorious and blessed future — the fact, not that 
it would be found in this or that method. This 
whole case in which Paul appears so sublimely, is 
eviscerated when you make dvdaraaig signify the 
union of the soul with another body at an indefi- 
nitely remote period. No ; the hope of the gospel is 
" that blessed hope, even (%at) the glorious appearing 
(bTtecpdveiav) of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ" (Tit. 2: 13). That rich history found in 
Phil. 1 : 21-24 did not find its source in some philo- 
sophical question relating to what should be the 
modification of the mode of existence that would 
occur many thousands of years in the future. It 
was the hope and expectation that " mortality would 
be swallowed up of life." 



Philippians 3: 20, 21. 



'H/j-tiv yap to noTdrevfia kv ovpa- 
volg VKapxet, e£ ov teal auTrjpa awe- 
ndex6fi>£da Kvpiov 'Irjaovv XptoTov, 
(21) og fj.ETaGXVfJ-ccriaei jo atifia rrjg 
Tairetvtoeeug ijn&v aviifioptyov rip 
ctofxari rrjg do^rjg avrov, Kara rrjv 
evipyetav rov dvvacdai avrov not 
vTcord^ai eavrti ra, navra. 



For our conversation is in hea- 
ven, from whence also we look for 
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : 
(21) Who shall change our vile 
body, that it may be fashioned like 
unto his glorious body, according 
to the working whereby he is able 
even to subdue all things unto him- 
self. 



A GLORIOUS BODY AT DEATH. 163 

Looking for the Saviour has beyond question ref- 
erence to the Parousia. See this text in Chap. n. 
And the plain and obvious meaning of v. 21 is, that 
when Christ shall appear, or come to receive us to the 
mansions he has prepared, he will effect the change 
— change the body of our vileness like to the body 
of his glory, make us like himself. And this likeness 
is not moral; it relates to the physical (aoj^a, body). 
He will, at death, give us a body like to the body of 
the glorified Man Christ Jesus. This is its plain and 
obvious meaning. 

And further, Christ is not to give us another body, 
but to change this body. Paul says in another place 
(1 Cor. 15: 44), " There is a natural (yjv%ix6v, animal 
life) body, and there is (not will be) a spiritual (nvzv- 
[latixov, mind or soul) body." Although this verb as 
in the present tense, does not of necessity mean it, 
yet it favors the hypothesis that there is in the pres- 
ent composition of man a twofold body, the one ani- 
mated by the animal life, the other by the mind or 
soul itself. Of course our theories or hypotheses are 
not taught as doctrine. We teach only what is ex- 
pressly taught in the Bible. But assuming this 
hypothesis we may suppose the change at death to 
be dropping the animal organization, and retaining 
the more subtile part as adapted to the exigencies of 
the spirit. This " spiritual " element would, as a 
consequence of severance from the grosser element, 



164 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



at once develop itself and become invested with new 
and wonderful powers, — as does the animal body at 
its birth. We think a careful attention to one's con- 
sciousness will give support to this hypothesis : also 
the facts of Mesmerism. 



John 5 : 21-29. 



"Qoirep yup 6 Ttarrjp kydpei rovg 
vsupovg Kal ^oottoiei, ovru teal 6 vibg 
ovg 8e?\-ei faoTzoiel. (22) ovde yup 6 
Trarr/p Kplvet ovdiva, uXTiu, rrjv Kpiaiv 
rcuaav dedcjKe rib vlu)' (23) Iva 
Travrsg rificJai rbv vlbv, tcaddg ri/zuai 
rbv rcarepa. 6 fir] rifitiv rbv vlbv, 
ov rqia rbv Ttanpa rbv nifitpavra 
avrov. 

(24) 'Afxrjv afirjv leya) vfilv, on 6 
rbv Xoyov fxov ukovcov, ical niatEvtov 
r& TTEfiipavri fj.e, e^ei faqv aluviov 
teal elg Kpiaiv ovk fpXErai, uXKa 
fj.Eraj3e[3r}Kev ek rov davdrov etc rrjv 
&7]V. (25) aurjv ufirjv Isyo v/niv, 
on IpxEtai upa Kai vvv eariv, ore oi 
VEKpol uKOvaovrai rrjg (jxovTJg rov viov 
Tov Qeov, Kal oi uKovaavrsg tyaovrai. 
(26) toartEp yap 6 irarrip e%ei &tjv ev 
Eavrti, ovrug eSoke Kal ru vi(b ^cor/v 
EXEiv ev kavru' (27) Kal k^ovaiav 
eScjkev avrt) Kal Kpiaiv ttoieiv, on 
vibg uvdpuTTOV kari. (28) [irj Oavfiu- 
£ete rovro' on 'ipxErai upa, ev y ttuv- 
rsg oi ev roig fivijfxsioig aKovaovrai 
rrjg (puvfjg avrov, (29) Kal EKnopEv- 
aovrai, oi ra ayada noirjaavrEg, elg 
uvaaraaiv ^urjg' oi 6e ra (pavXa ixpa- 
gavrsg, £lg avdaraaiv KpiaEug. 



For as the Father raiseth up the 
dead, and quickeneth them ; even 
so the Son quickeneth whom he 
will. (22) For the Father judgeth 
no man, but hath committed all 
judgment unto the Son ; (23) That 
all men should honor the Son, even 
as they honor the Father. He that 
honoreth not the Son, honoreth not 
the Father which hath sent him. 

(24) Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, He that heareth my word, and 
believeth on him that sent me, hath 
everlasting life, and shall not come 
into condemnation : but is passed 
from death unto life. (25) Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, The hour is 
coming, and now is, Avhen the dead 
shall hear the voice of the Son of 
God ; and they that hear shall live. 
(26) For as the Father hath life in 
himself, so hath he given to the Son 
to have life in himself; (27) And 
hath given him authority to execute 
judgment also, because he is the 
Son of man. (28) Marvel not at 
this : for the hour is coming, in the 
which all that are in the graves 
shall hear his voice, (29) And shall 
come forth; they that have done 
good, unto the resurrection of life ; 
and they that have done evil, unto 
the resurrection of damnation. 



SERMON. 165 

There is in these verses much of the order of mod- 
ern sermons. The theme is that the Father and the 
Son are one and equal, v. 18. This is illustrated by 
the following facts : — 

I. As the Father raiseth up the dead and quicken- 
eth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will, 
v. 21. 

II. The Father judgeth no man, but hath commit- 
ted all judgment unto the Son, v. 22. 

So that all men should honor the Son even as they 
honor the Father, v. 23. 

The subject and plan of discussion thus stated, the 
two several heads are resumed and considered more 
at length. 

I. As the Father raiseth up the dead and quicken- 
eth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 

By this is meant a moral resurrection. See vs. 
24-26. 

Verse 24 is illustrated by such texts as the follow- 
ing: 

John 3: 16. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." 

John 6 : 40, 50-58. " And this is the will of him that sent me, that 
every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have ever- 
lasting life : and I will raise him up at the last day." (50) " This is 
the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof 
and not die. (51) I am the living bread which came down from hea- 
ven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever : and the bread 
that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 
(52) The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can 



166 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



this man give us his flesh to eat? (53) Then Jesus said unto them, 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. (54) Whoso eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life : and I will raise him 
up at the last day. (55) Eor my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood 
is drink indeed. (56) He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
dwelleth in me, and I in him. (57) As the living Eather hath sent me, 
and I live by the Eather ; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by 
me. (58) This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as 
your fathers did eat manna, and are dead : he that eateth of this bread 
shall live forever." 

John 8: 51. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my 
saying, he shall never see death." 

John 11:25, 26. " Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and 
the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : 
(26) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 

John 17:2. "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he 
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." 



Verse 25 is illustrated by the following texts. 



Daniel 12 : 2. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the 
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and 
everlasting contempt." 

Eph. 2 : 1-6. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in tres- 
passes and sins ; (2) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the 
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (3) Among 
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our 
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind ; and were by 
nature the children of wrath, even as others. (4) But God, who is rich 
.in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (5) Even when we 
were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye 
are saved), (6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit to- 
gether in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 

Eph. 5: 14. "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and 
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." 

Col. 2: 13. "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircum- 
cision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having for- 
given you all trespasses." 



SERMON. 167 

Verse 26 is but the iteration, in a little different 
phraseology, of the first "head" (v. 21), which he 
had now explained. 

II. The Father judgeth no man, but hath commit- 
ted all judgment unto the Son. 

This great truth is explained in verses 27-29. 

Verse 27. The Father hath given him authority 
(t^ovaiav), even to administer government, because he 
is a son of man. Daniel had predicted that there 
should be given to one who, " as a son of man," 
came upon the clouds, dominion and glory and a 
kingdom ; and that his authority (t^ovoia by the Sev- 
enty' should be an everlasting authority. This au- 
thority was given to Christ because he was " a son of 
man." It became Him by whom are all things in 
bringing many sons unto glory, to make " a son of 
man " the Captain of their salvation. Heb. 2 : 10, 17. 
7 : 26. Luke 24 : 46. There was a fitness in it. Such 
a being — God manifest in the flesh — would have a 
moral power over the fallen race that no other source 
in the Universe could furnish. Such a being, as our 
great High- Priest, could, his own self bear our sins 
in his own body, and make reconciliation for the sins 
of the people. 

Verses 28, 29. Were his hearers surprised at this 
statement ? He would make a stronger. " The 
hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves 
shall hear his voice," &c. " His " is the emphatic 



168 ESCHATOLOGY. 

word. He that was now before them but a man as 
they supposed, assured them that not only the gov- 
ernment of this world was in his hands, but that his 
t^ovola (authority) extended to the unseen world. 

All power (t^ovoia) in heaven and in earth was to 
be given into his hands. The dead like the living 
would be amenable to him, and from him receive 
their final sentence. He would soon be " on the right 
hand of God, angels and authorities and powers be- 
ing made subject unto him " (1 Pet. 3: 22). Verses 
28, 29 are evidently designed to explain and illustrate 
verses 22, 27 — that all judgment was committed 
unto the Son. Any question relating to the Resur- 
rection was not and could not be under consideration 
here. By " all that are in the graves " is meant the 
dead or those in the unseen world. 

Those who are disposed to construe this more lit- 
erally and apply it to the resurrection of the body at 
the " end of the world," will find themselves embar- 
rassed. If any part of v. 29 can refer to the dvdata- 
oig (jcopatog, the resurrection of the body (Knapp, Theol. 
II. 616 — not a Bible phrase), it would be the com- 
ing forth from the graves. But no ; they come forth 
from the graves slg dvaaraaiv, unto a resurrection. 
Eig (unto) points to " a state or condition into which 
one comes after verbs of motion." For instance, 
" These shall go away into (elg) everlasting punish- 
ment." Matt. 25 : 46. So here the dead come forth 



SERMON. 169 

unto (eh) a resurrection — implying that which is 
distinct from rising from the grave — a state beyond 
the grave, a future state of being that may be one of 
happiness or of woe : and which, to be decided by 
the Son of Man when exalted to the right hand of 
God. Verse 30, " I can of mine own self do noth- 
ing : as I hear, I judge : and my judgment is just" 
&c, shows that "judgment" by the Son is the sub- 
ject under consideration, and not some minor ques- 
tion relating to the body. 

The Saviour is saying this to show that he is en- 
titled to be honored even as the Father. But in what 
shines brightest the glory of the Redeemer ? Not in 
the miracles that he wrought, be they great or small 
— if such a distinction should be made — but in that 
moral work, by which men that are dead in trespass- 
es and sins are quickened to a life of holiness — in 
what is done to the moral character, rather than to 
the material body. 

"Here the whole Deity is known." 

From John 5 : 21-29 we learn nothing about the 
Resurrection in the ordinary use of that word. 

John 11: 23-26. 

" Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. (24) Mar- 
tha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrec- 
tion at the last day. (25) Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrec- 
tion, and the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 

15 



170 ESCHATOLOGY. 

yet shall lie live : (26) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, 
shall never die." 

Verse 23. By this language we think Jesus intend- 
ed to say that he would miraculously restore Laza- 
rus to life. * Avmxrfiixai (rise again) has often that 
meaning. This would be to the point in the circum- 
stances. It would imply what was really the purpose 
of Christ. 

Verse 24. "What were the views which Martha de- 
signed to express in this language, we cannot know. 
Jesus had said, Chap. 6 : 40, " This is the will of him 
that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, 
and believeth on him, may have everlasting life : and 
I will raise him up at the last day." Whether Mar- 
tha understood this correctly, does not appear ; but 
that there was error in her reply would seem prob- 
able from the answer which Jesus gave. The lan- 
guage of Martha is not, then, to be regarded as sus- 
taining or militating against any theory on the 
subject of the Resurrection. 

Verse 25. " I am the resurrection and the life : " I 
am he who so renews and sanctifies men, that a fu- 
ture state is " life " indeed — a blessed life. There 
is a resurrection of the unjust ; but he that believeth 
in me though he be dead, will be alive — though his 
body die, will yet be sustained in a happy existence. 

Verse 26. This is an advance upon the preceding 
verse. He had said that he who was dead was yet 
alive. He now says, he who is alive, will never die. 



LAZARUS. 171 

The change that will pass upon his physical nature, 
will but advance his happiness. It will not be death, 
but life in a higher degree, and that life eternal. 

That Martha should have not only inadequate but 
erroneous views on the subject of the future state 
(dvdozaaig) is not surprising. When the favored dis- 
ciples came down from the mount of transfiguration, 
Jesus charged them to tell the vision to no man till 
the Son of Man were risen from the dead. And 
they reasoned among themselves what the rising 
from the dead could mean. The erroneous remark 
of Martha furnished an appropriate occasion for an 
explanation of the doctrine of the Anastasis. It 
meant a future life, and to the disciples of Christ it 
was a happy life — the consequence of the saving 
work of Christ as a Redeemer. The language of 
the Saviour forbids the hypothesis that dvdaraaig 
means the raising to life of the dead body at a dis- 
tant future day. Its import is, that when a man dies 
as to his body, he is still alive. 

2 Cor. 5 : 1-4. 

Oidauev yap, 6tl euv rj emyscog Eor we know, that if our earthly 

tjiiCjv ohia rod cuijvovg naraTivdy, house of this tabernacle were dis- 

oiKodofirjv en Qeov ^o/zev, olaiav solved, we have a building of God, 

uxeiponoirjTov, aluviov ev -dig ovpa- an house not made with hands, 

volg. (2) Kal yap ev iovto areva- eternal in the heavens. (2) For 

tfifzev, to olarjTTjpLov tijiCjv to e£ in this we groan, earnestly desiring 

ovpavov h-Kcvdvoacdai errnrodovvreg' to be clothed upon with our house 

(3) dye ml hdvoa/xevoc, ov yv/xvol which is from heaven. (3) If so 

evpedrjoofieda. (4) Kal yap ol bvreg be that being clothed we shall not 



172 ESCHATOLOGY. 

ev tcj uk7]vei GTevu^ofiev fiapovfisvoi- be found naked. (4) For, we that 
£<2>' d) ov 6e?i6{j,£v tudvoaoOcu, a?Ji are in this tabernacle, do groan, 
EKEvdvoaodai, Iva Kara~odg to dvrj- being burdened, not for that we 
rbv v-xo rrjg ^cofjg. would be unclothed, but clothed 

upon, that mortality might be 
swallowed up of life. 

On our theory this language is of most obvious 
interpretation, while on the common hypothesis it is 
attended with difficulty. The Apostle in the preced- 
ing chapter had spoken of his very great sufferings 
for Christ's sake. But they were advancing his 
preparation for heaven, while his views were not of 
things seen and temporal, but of things not seen and 
eternal. He expands this last idea in the verses 
under consideration. Though his body, as the 
earthly house in which his spirit dwelt, was de- 
stroyed, he had a better in heaven, made of God, and 
eternal (v. 1). He was more than reconciled to the 
destruction of the present body — the termination of 
the present mode of being, — he desired to be 
clothed upon with his spiritual body (v. 2) ; and 
" since also " (ei'ys ucd, — Robinson, — Liddell and 
Scott), such body awaited him immediately at death, 
he should not therefore be found naked (v. 3). He 
did not wish to disparage his present body, so fear- 
fully and wonderfully made ; he did not desire to be 
unclothed, as it was a privilege to live and act and 
enjoy in the present methods. But as the future was 
so immeasurably in advance of the present, he could 



ANASTASIZED AT DEATH. 173 

but desire to be clothed upon with his spiritual 
body, — to have mortality and its ills swallowed up 
of life (v. 4). 

All this language proceeds upon the assumption 
that the spiritual body will succeed immediately to 
the present animal organization. Indeed v. 3 di- 
rectly and positively denies any " separate state." 
The soul is not to be left naked, but to be clothed 
upon with the spiritual body. 

As confirmatory of the interpretation we have 
given of the language of the Apostle, we refer the 
reader to Locke's view of it quoted in Chap. II. p. 
64. He saw that Paul's language demanded an inter- 
pretation which connected immediately the putting 
off of the present, and the putting on of the spir- 
itual body. Therefore, Paul must be writing under 
the erroneous opinion that the Coming of the Lord 
was near, and himself was to be a participator in 
the great transaction. But Paul, after all, was not 
in so great error as some interpreters have supposed, 
nor will his language need to be subjected to any 
such strain, as has been thought the condition of 
reducing it to harmony with fact. 

John 6 : 39, 40. 

Tovto 6s egtl jo delr^ia tov And this is the Father's will 

Tze^avrog pis iraTpdg, Iva ttuv o which hath sent me, that of all 

dedune p,oi, pjj uttoaeog) ef avrov, which he hath given me, I should 

aXka avaarrjou avrb kv rrj kaxa.Tr) lose nothing, but should raise it 

Tjjiipa. (40) tovto yap eon to de"krj- up again at the last day. (40) And 

15* 



174 ESCHATOLOGY. 

\ia tov nifi^avrog fxe, Iva nug 6 this is the will of him that sent 
OsupcJu- rbv vibv nal ttcotevuv elg me, that every one which seeth 
avrbv, Ixv &V V o.'lu>vlov, nal uva- the Son, and- believeth on him, 
GTTjau avrbv eyu ry kax^rrj fypepa. may have everlasting life : and I 

will raise him up at the last day. 

Verse 39. That of all which he hath given me I 
shall lose nothing, but shall anastasize it in the last 
day. So in v. 40 ; I will anastasize him in the last 
day. Here the antithesis to being lost, is to be 
anastasized by Christ. And having everlasting life 
is equivalent to being anastasized as Christ's. A 
man is saved in this world when he becomes 
Christ's : he will find salvation everlasting only 
as he shall be with and united to Christ in the fu- 
ture world. It should be remembered that this was 
said at a time when the fact of a future state was a 
debated question : and this language of the Saviour 
was of the utmost importance as settling it. But 
can we, in such circumstances, and in such a connec- 
tion, suppose the Saviour would speak of the phi- 
losophy of a future state? — of the mode of consti- 
tutional being that shall ultimately and many thou- 
sand years hence belong to that state ? To us noth- 
ing seems less probable ; we had almost said, more 
impossible. 

And if the reader will look at the context, he will 
find that the great subject under consideration for- 
bids us to understand the language of our text 
otherwise than as interpreted above. Christ was 



ANASTASIZED AT DEATH. 175 

telling the Jews what was his mission into the world. 
It was to save it ; to give to men everlasting life. 
He was the bread of life : he that eateth of this 
bread " shall live forever " — shall be anastasized, 
and live on a blessed life beyond the grave. 

By "the last day," as it occurs in these verses, 
also in vs. 44 and 54, is to be understood the day of 
death. 

1 Corinthians 6:14. 

'0 6e $ebg xal rbv Kvpcov r/yetpe, And God hath both raised up 
nal ?]{iu.g e^Ejepd 6iu tjjq Swaixeug the Lord, and will also raise up us 
avrov. by his own power. 

God hath both anastasized the Lord, and will also 
anastasize us by his power. 

The verb in this case is ijyetQs. It is equivalent to 
dvioxyas. These verbs are used interchangeably. Corn- 
pare Acts 2 : 32 and 3 : 26 with 3 : 15 and 4 : 10. In 
1 Cor. xv, the abstract is represented by dvdaraatg, 
and the concrete by lyeioco. 

God will raise up us, not our bodies. The term 
is applied to 1he whole man. Will he live and be 
blessed after death ? — is the question answered in 
the text. The body is to be destroyed, v. 13. If the 
Ana stasis had any special reference to the body, it 
would have been made prominent here. The body 
is the subject of remark. It had just been said that 
it was to be destroyed. . Christians were cautioned 
against the abuse of its functions. If the Anastasis 



176 ESCHATOLOGY. 

was the reviving of the body, it would seem there 
must have been an allusion to this fact. 

The connections of this verse force it upon our 
theory of interpretation. Christians are dissuaded 
from the abuse of their bodies : these bodies were 
for the Lord. Themselves who possessed them 
were the Lord's, and were to be Ms forever. There 
was a future and everlasting state, and of such im- 
portance, that every thing of time should be subordi- 
nated to it. 

1 John 3 : 2. 

" Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not'yet ap- 
pear what we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, 
we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is." 

". We shall see him as he is." See John 14 : 3. 
" If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also : " and 17 : 24. " Father, 
I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be 
with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory ^ 
which thou hast given me." The time referred to in 
both these texts is death, when the believer enters 
heaven. To " behold his glory," and to " see him as 
he is," are one and the same thing. But this is to 
be when he shall " appear." 

There is an inference from the fact that we shall 
see him as he is, namely, that we shall be like him. 



ANASTASIZED AT DEATH. 177 

We cannot else see him as he is. This has reference 
to the state of being, constitutionally. The lan- 
guage, " It doth not yet appear what we shall be," 
must have this import. If the reference were to a 
moral likeness, this would not be true. "We do 
know what we are to be morally. We are to be 
perfectly holy. What is implied in the new mode 
of being — in the development of the spiritual body, 
and the exercise of its functions, we do not know. 
Hence we cannot conceive of Christ as he now is, 
constitutionally. A person with but a part of the 
senses — Laura Bridgman for example — cannot 
conceive of persons as they are, who have all the 
senses. So of Christ : the mode of being that is his 
must be ours before we can see him as he is. He 
must " change our vile body, that it may be fash- 
ioned like unto his glorious body." Then we shall 
know as we are known. But this vision is to be at 
death. Therefore the possession of a spiritual body 
will be at death. To be in heaven will imply the 
functions of that body. The " change," then, will 
take place at death. 

Matthew 27 : 50-53. 

'0 6e 'Irjaovg Ttakiv Kpugag 6uvy Jesus, when he had cried again 

(leyaTiy adrjue to irvev/na. (51) Kal with a loud voice, yielded up the 

hhi), to tcaTaireTaGfiaYov vaov kax't- ghost. (51) And behold the veil 

cdr) elg 6vo and avudev ewe kuto • of the temple was rent in twain 

Kal 7] yr/ haeiadrj, Kal at neTpat taxi- from the top to the bottom, and 

cdrjaav (52) Kal to ftvqfisZa ave- the earth did quake, and the rocks 



178 ESCHATOLOGY. 

uxdrjaav, nal noTika cufiara rtiv rent; (52) And the graves were 

KTjKoi.firjfievtJV dyluv rjyepdrj, (53) opened, and many bodies of the 

nal k^eTidovreg e/c rtiv fivrj/xeiuv saints which slept, arose, (53) And 

fieru tt/v eyepaiv avrov, elorjldov elg came out of the graves after his 

rr/v dycav r Kokiv > ml hve^aviodrjaav resurrection, and went into the 

770/Moif. holy city, and appeared unto 

many. 

We refer to this language, not because we propose 
to explain all the facts here related, but just to show 
that so far as we can understand it, our theory is 
sustained by it. What are these facts ? They do 
not, nor can they all be made to appear in an Eng- 
lish translation. " Bodies " in v. 52 is not the sub- 
ject of " came " in v. 53 : cm^ata (bodies) is in the 
neuter gender, while t&l&ovTeg (participle ; came or 
having come) is masculine, and refers to the persons 
whose bodies had been raised. The facts, then, are 
these : On the afternoon of the sixth day of the 
week, when Jesus gave up the ghost, the earth did 
quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were 
opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept 
arose. On the morning of the first day of the suc- 
ceeding week, Christ rose from the dead and came 
out of his grave. " After his resurrection " the per- 
sons whose bodies had been raised three days 
before, came out of their graves, and went into the 
holy city and appeared unto many. What is meant 
by the raising of the bodies when the persons them- 
selves did not come out of their graves till the third 
day ? Was this a revivification of the former ani- 



THINGS HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD. 179 

mal body, so that the persons were known by those 
acquainted with them when living ? And if so, 
what became of these bodies ? Did they again die ? 
' If it were only the spiritual body that was raised, 
they could not have appeared to the senses of the liv- 
ing. This is implied in the very word " spiritual " 
(rtv-cvuarvAov). Why were they raised? And why 
is nothing said of it by the other Evangelists ? And 
why do not the Apostles refer to it in their epistles, 
and especially why did not Paul in 1 Cor. xv ? 

Our own opinion — we will not be pledged to 
prove its correctness — is this : The raising of these 
saints was the revivification of their animal bodies, 
and was miraculous ; as was also the case of the 
Saviour. And the design of it was the same as the 
raising and manifestation to the senses of Christ — 
to aid the men of that day to the practical convic- 
tion that Christ and also his disciples were " alive 
after their passion " — that death did not destroy 
the man. It was, by a miracle, to prove to men the 
great fact of the Anastasis. 

The verb rendered "appeared" is often used to 
imply representations made by the use of words. 
See Acts 23: 15, 22. 24: 1. 25 : 2. Heb. 11: 14. It 
may be, that they not only appeared as alive after 
they had been for some time dead ; but also by ver- 
bal representations taught the fact of their life after 
death. They may have said, " We speak that we 
do know, and testify that we have seen." 



180 ESCHATOLOGY. 

The phrase, " appeared unto many," although it 
does not directly assert it, must yet be understood 
as implying that they were in the holy city but a 
brief period. They were there long enough to be 
seen by many. Had they become permanent resi- 
dents, and after years of life died as did others, this 
phraseology would not have been employed. They 
doubtless soon disappeared ; in what way we are not 
informed. 

These facts, then, support directly our theory of 
interpretation. They were designed to show that 
there is life beyond the grave — what Paul proved in 
1 Cor. xv, and called the Anastasis. But where can 
these facts find a place on the common hypothesis, 
and to what do they stand in any relations of sub- 
serviency, logical or moral ? 

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

It is, as we understand it, the commonly received 
doctrine that Christ rose from the dead bodily, — 
that the very body which was laid in the grave was 
raised, so that the place which was occupied by it 
was left vacant: that he was "the first begotten 
from the dead " (Col. 1 : 18), " the first to rise from 
the dead " (Acts 26 : 23) ; and that therefore the very 
bodies of his followers — the harvest of which he 
was the first-fruit — will, in like manner, rise from 
the dead. 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 181 

What are the facts in relation to Christ ? 

He died ; was buried ; his body did not see cor- 
ruption ; it was miraculously revivified on the third 
day — the wounds upon his side and hands yet un- 
healed and open ; he appeared to his friends, and 
suddenly and miraculously vanished out of their 
sight ; he ate and drank, and spoke and walked ; and 
finally, in a miraculous manner, rose up bodily — 
the same body so far as the disciples could see, in 
which he had appeared after his resurrection. 

Now it might be urged against the above state- 
ment of doctrine, that Christ was not the first in- 
stance of a dead body revivified. The son of the 
Shunammite, the son of the widow of Nain, and 
Lazarus, are instances. 

It was not the first instance of a " change," and 
of a spiritual body. It is supposed by those who 
entertain the common opinion of the Resurrection, 
that Enoch and Elijah are possessed of their spirit- 
ual bodies — that they, by their translation, expe- 
rienced a change like that which all will experience 
at the " end of the world." On either hypothesis, 
then, Christ is not the first in the order of time that 
rose from the dead. And then, the case of Christ 
and that of other men is dissimilar. His body, as 
was predicted by David, did not experience corrup- 
tion as ours does. And if we consider the Resur- 
rection as referring to the body, a resurrection to him 

16 



182 ESCHATOLOGY. 

and to us is not the same thing. We do not suc- 
ceed to him as the same in kind. And he therefore 
cannot be the " first " with reference to us. He is as 
unlike us in the circumstances of his death, as in 
those of his birth. Both to him were altogether pe- 
culiar. 

But let us examine the texts above referred to. 

Acts 26 : 23. 

Ei Tva-&TjTbc 6 Xpujibg, el irp&Tog That Christ should suffer, and 
eg uvaaTaaeug vsKpcJv (pug ^eA/Ui that he should be the first that 
Karayy&Jieiv r<p ?ia<o not Tolg £&- should rise from the dead, and 
veoc. should shew light unto the people, 

and to the Gentiles. 

Paul had preached only such things as he had 
learned from the Prophets and from Moses (v. 22), 
— That the Messiah was to be a, sufferer, and that he, 
The First from the time of his anastasis, was to pro- 
claim light — the light of truth and of life — to the 
people, and to the Gentiles, 

The phrase relating to the Anastasis is the same 
as in Rom. 1 : 4, where Christ is said to be constitu- 
ted the Son of God in power from the time of his 
resurrection from the dead. Peter (Acts 2 : 32, 33) 
presents the same thought. This same Jesus hath 
God anastasized. . . . Being therefore exalted to the 
right hand of God, and having received the promise 
of the Spirit, haih shed forth this which ye now see 
and hear. Here Christ is represented as placed in 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 183 

power (rrj de^ia) from the time of his anastasis. From 
that time he was first, " Head over all things." 

Christ is " first " as qualified for the work of giv- 
ing light to the world, . the work of saving men. The 
reference, then, must be to his character as a great 
Saviour, and not to an incident in his history, which 
could in no way qualify him for that work. 

Colossians 1 : 18. 

Kal avroc eanv r} Ks6a2.rj rov ad- And he is the head of the body, 
{larog ttjq eKK/iTjotag' bg eanv apxn, the church : who is the beginning, 
TzpuroTOKoc; fa rtiv veicpuv, Iva yevrj- the first-born from the dead ; that 
rat ev TTuciv avrog Tipurevcov. in all things he might have the pre- 

eminence. 

This should be seen in its connections. , See vs. 
15-19. 

The object of the writer is to glorify Christ, and 
to employ those terms which would express, in the 
most emphatic manner, his dignity. It were entirely 
out of place, then, in this connection, to introduce 
the fact that Christ was first in the order of time in 
rising from the dead. The term is one of dignity. 
Not only is Christ the Highest in the spiritual world 
or among the dead, but he is the " first-born of every 
creature" (v. 15). So in Rev. 1 : 5, Christ is the 
First-begotten of the dead, and first in the spiritual 
world, he is also Prince (uqxojv) of the kings of the 
earth. 

We come to the conclusion, then, that " First " 



184 ESCHATOLOGY. 

and " First-begotten " are designations of honor, and 
have not the slightest bearing on the question of the 
Resurrection. 

By the " resurrection " of Christ is meant the 
great fact that he is "alive after his passion" 
(Jjona pent rb Tta&eiv avrov, living' after he had died) ; 
including also, as connected with his transition to a 
higher state of being, his official exaltation to the 
Throne of Grace — " Head over all things to the 
Church." 

The reader is requested carefully to examine the 
following texts as sustaining this position. Very 
few of them make any allusion to the revivification of 
the body of Christ, or to any question relating to the 
body. That God raised or anastasized Christ, is as 
much as to say that he was made a glorious Saviour, 
able to save to the uttermost. And to make the 
anastasis of Christ or that of his disciples relate to a 
question of corporeity, is infinitely to belittle the sub- 
ject — is to take its very soul from much of the gos- 
pel of Christ. 

These texts are too numerous to be transcribed. 
And, too, they should be seen in then connections. 
To quote all that bears on this point would be to 
transfer to these pages much of the New Testament. 

Actsl: 3. Mark 16: 11. Luke 24: 23. Acts 25: 
19. Rev. 1:18. 2:8. 

Acts 1 : 22. '2: 30-33, 36. 3: 15, 16, 26. 4: 2, 10, 



RESURRECTION. 185 

38. 5: 30, 31. 10: 40-43. 13: 30-39. 17: 3,18, 31. 
Rom. 4: 24, 25. 6: 4-11. 7:4. 8: 34. 10: 9. 1 Cor. 
6: 14 ("us," not our bodies). 2 Cor. 4: 14. Gal. 1: 
1. Eph. 1: 20-23. Phil. 3: 10, 11. Col. 2: 12. 3:1. 
1 Thess. 1: 10. 1 Pet. 1: 3, 21. 3: 21, 22. 

The following as specimens of a reference of the 
same general kind, but in different phraseology, may- 
explain and confirm the interpretation given to the 
preceding. Phil. 2: 8-11. 1 Tim. 3: 16. Heb. 7: 25. 
8:1. 9: 12,24. 10:12. 12:2. 

We propose to the reader that he shall attempt to 
read the texts above referred to, attaching to " resur- 
rection " or its equivalent phrase, the idea of a 
union of the soul to its body, and make them sig- 
nificant and their connection harmonious. We 
think the attempt rigidly made, will convert the 
operator. 

Since writing the above, we have met with the fol- 
lowing from " Spurgeon's Sermons, Second Series." 
We do not refer to this author as authority in either 
logic or exegesis, but as furnishing indirectly and 
without design, an invincible argument in support 
of our position. It is the opening paragraph in Ser- 
mon XVII. pp. 262-264. Text, Acts 24 : 15, " There 
shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just 
and unjust." 

" Reflecting the other day upon the sad state of 

16* 



186 ESCHATOLOGY. 

the churches at the present moment, I was led to 
look back to apostolic times, and to consider wherein 
the preaching of the present day differed from the 
preaching of the apostles. I remarked the vast dif- 
ference in their style from the set and formal oratory 
of the present age. I remarked that the Apostles 
did not take a text when they preached, nor did 
they confine themselves to one subject, much less to 
any place of worship ; but I find that they stood up 
in any place and declared from the fulness of their 
heart what they knew of Jesus Christ. But the 
main difference I observed was in the subjects of 
their preaching. Surprised I was when I discovered 
that the very staple of the preaching of the Apostles 
was the resurrection of the dead. I found myself to 
have been preaching the doctrine of the grace of 
God ; to have been upholding free election ; to have 
been leading the people of God, as well as I was 
enabled, into the deep things of his word ; but I was 
surprised to find that I had not been copying the 
apostolic fashion half as nearly as I might have 
done. The Apostles, when they preached, always 
testified concerning the resurrection of Jesus, and 
the consequent resurrection of the dead. It appears 
that the alpha and omega of their gospel was the 
testimony that Jesus Christ died and rose again from 
the dead according to the Scriptures. When they 
chose another Apostle in the room of Judas, who 



RESURRECTION. 187 

had become apostate (Acts 1: 22), they said, ' One 
must be ordained to be a witness with us of his 
resurrection ; ' so that the very office of an Apostle 
was to be a witness of the resurrection. And well 
did they fulfil their office. When Peter stood up 
before the multitude, he declared unto them that 
' David spoke of the resurrection of Christ.' When 
Peter and John were taken before the council, 
the great cause of their arrest was that the rulers 
were grieved ' because they taught the people, 
and preached through Jesus Christ the resurrec- 
tion from the dead.' (Acts 4: 2.) When they were 
set free, after having been examined, it is said, 
' With great power gave the apostles witness of the 
resurrection of the Lord Jesus ; and great grace was 
upon them all.' (Acts 4 : 33.) It was this which 
stirred the curiosity of the Athenians when Paul 
preached among them. ' They said, he seemeth to 
be a setter-forth of strange gods, because he preached 
unto them Jesus and the resurrection of the dead.' 
And this moved the laughter of the Areopagites, for 
when he spoke of the resurrection of the dead, ' some 
mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of 
this matter.' Truly did Paul say, when he stood 
before the council of the Pharisees and Sadducees, 
' Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am called 
in question.' And equally truly did he constantly 
assert, ' If Christ be not risen from the dead, then is 



188 ESCHATOLOGY. 

our preaching vain, and your faith is vain, and ye 
are yet in your sins.' The resurrection of Jesus 
and the resurrection of the righteous is a doc- 
trine which we believe, but which we too seldom 
preach or care to read about. Though I have in- 
quired of several booksellers for a book specially 
upon the subject of the resurrection, I have not yet 
been able to purchase one of any sort whatever; 
and when I turned to Dr. Owen's works, which are 
a most invaluable storehouse of divine knowledge, 
containing much that is valuable on almost every 
subject, I could find, even there, scarcely more than 
the slightest mention of the resurrection. It has 
been set down as a well-known truth, and therefore 
has never been discussed. Heresies have not risen 
up respecting it ; it would almost have been a mercy 
if there had been, for whenever a truth is contested 
by heretics, the orthodox fight strongly for it, and 
the pulpit resounds with it every day. I am per- 
suaded, however, that there is .much power in this 
doctrine ; and if I preach it this morning you will 
see that God will own the apostolic preaching, and 
there will be conversions. I intend putting it to the 
test now to see whether there be not something 
which we cannot perceive at present in the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, which is capable of moving the 
hearts of men and bringing them into subjection to 
the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 



RESURRECTION. 189 

Two or three things are noticeable in this extract. 
Mr. Spurgeon from his own statement seems never 
to have thought much on the subject of the Resur- 
rection. And he is of opinion that others have 
thought as little. Not a book to be found on the 
subject ! Neither himself nor others have preached 
the Resurrection. Apostles preached it. It was their 
constant theme : and in it was found the power of 
God to salvation. Sinners were converted by it. 
And the inference is that there must be somehow a 
" power in this doctrine." " If I preach it this morn- 
ing, you will see that God will own the apostolic 
preaching, and there will be conversions." The 
power of the doctrine was to him a mystery. But 
there must be a power in it which we " cannot per- 
ceive at present." No wonder he could not perceive 
the philosophy of apostolic success. No wonder he 
could not see how there could be any great moral 
power in a mere circumstance relating to the mode 
of our being in some remote period in eternity ; or 
why this fact should be so prominent in the preach- 
ing of the Apostles. 

"Why did he not, for a moment, listen to that 
reason which God has given us, and know that what 
is now the doctrine of the Resurrection, according 
to his own definitions, could have no such power for 
the conversion of men to God ; and then infer that 
the Anastasis of the Apostles must have been a very 



190 ESCHATOLOGY. 

different doctrine ? And surely if the subject has 
been studied as little as he represents, neither he nor 
any other man should be very tenacious of his pres- 
ent opinion. Our author's representations do cer- 
tainly create a very strong presumption in favor of 
" a more excellent way " as yet to be learned by the 
modern church. 

And it does seem to us, that even from the most 
superficial perusal of the Scriptures on the subject, it 
must be evident from the use which the Apostles 
made of the Anastasis, that it is not the modern 
doctrine of the Resurrection. There is, there can be 
no such power in that doctrine. Mr. Spurgeon thinks 
there must be " something which we cannot perceive 
at present." Not so : we can perceive and know 
that there can be no such power. If the human 
reason does not know that, it knows nothing ; and 
absurdity is a word that has no appropriate place in 
the human vocabulary. 

And, with all respect to Mr. Spurgeon, we must 
say, that when we read the sermon, in which he 
" put this doctrine to the test," and laid himself out 
to possess it of the power of " apostolic preaching," 
the impression upon our mind was that of the serio- 
ludicrous. And, we may add, we doubt if the ex- 
pectations of the preacher were realized with refer- 
ence to the conversion of the hearers. 

And, to pass from Mr. S. to a thought that may 



RESURRECTION. 191 

be expressed in this connection, as akin to what we 
have been saying, What was the burden of the fare- 
well address of the Saviour ? This : Though I am 
about to die, I shall still be alive, and will bless you; 
and you are to believe in me as thus alive and thus 
able to bless. Indeed, I shall be able to bless you 
more than I can now ; so that it is expedient for 
you that I go away. And, moreover, you will soon 
come and be with me and behold my glory. 

Now was not this the subject of the preaching of 
these disciples after the day of Pentecost? He 
was alive after his passion ; Him hath God exalted ; 
He it is that sheds forth this Spirit which is in the 
midst of you ; He it is that imparts to us the power 
to work miracles. He is alive forevermore ; and not 
only so, but he is exalted to be a Prince and Saviour, 
to give repentance and remission of sins. Pie had 
said to them, " You believe in God, believe also in 
me." They did now believe in him, and in him, 
though now they saw him not, yet believing, they 
rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
"Jesus and the Resurrection" was Jesus and Life 
beyond the grave — life everlasting. 

1 Corinthians, xv. 

President D wight in his sermon on the Resurrec- 
tion has the following truthful remarks. " The sub- 
ject of this chapter, is the 'Avdoraaig, or future Exist- 



192 ESCHATOLOGY. 

ence of man. This word is commonly, but often 
erroneously, rendered Resurrection. So far as I 
have observed, it usually denotes our existence be- 
yond the grave. Its original and literal meaning is 
to stand up, or to stand again. As standing is the 
appropriate posture of life, consciousness, and ac- 
tivity ; and lying doivn the appropriate posture of 
the dead, the unconscious, and the inactive ; this word 
is not unnaturally employed to denote the future 
state of spirits, who are living, conscious, active 
beings. Many passages of Scripture would have 
been rendered more intelligible, and the thoughts 
contained in them more just, and impressive, had 
this word been translated agreeably to its real mean- 
ing. This observation will be sufficiently illustrated 
by a recurrence to that remarkable passage, which 
contains the dispute between our Saviour and the 
Sadducees. Matt. 22 : 23. Then came to him, says 
the Evangelist, the Sadducees, who say there is no 
resurrection : \w\ elvai dvdoraaiv, that there is no future 
state, or no future existence of mankind. The objec- 
tion which they bring to Christ against the doctrine 
of a future state, is founded upon the Jewish law of 
marriage, which required, that a surviving brother 
should marry the widow of a brother deceased. In 
conformity to this law, they declare seven brothers 
to have married, successively, one wife ; who survived 
them all. They then ask, Whose wife shall she be in 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 193 

the resurrection ? lv ry avaatda&i ; in the future state ? 
They could not suppose, that she would be any 
man's wife in the resurrection : a momentary event ; 
and of such a nature as to forbid even the suppo- 
sition, that the relations of the present life could be 
of the least possible importance, or be regarded with 
the least possible attention, during its transitory ex- 
istence. Our Saviour answered them, In the Resur- 
rection^ or as it should be rendered, In the future 
state, they neither marry nor are given in marriage ; 
but are as the Angels of God in Heaven. But as 
touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read 
that, which was spoken unto you by God; or as it 
ought to be rendered, Have ye not read that, which 
was spoken unto you by God, concerning the future 
existence of those who are dead, saying, I am the God 
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob ? God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living. This passage, were we at any loss concern- 
ing the meaning of the word dvdaraoig, determines it 
beyond a dispute. The proof, that there is an dvda- 
raaig of the dead, alleged by our Saviour, is the dec- 
laration of God to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, 
of Isaac, and of Jacob ; and the irresistible truth, 
that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 
The consequence, as every one who reads the Bible 
knows, is, that Abraham^ Isaac, and Jacob, were living 
at the time when this declaration was made. Those 

17 



194 ESCHATOLOGY. 

who die, therefore, live after they are dead, and this 
future life is the dvaGraacg, concerning which there 
was so much debate between the Pharisees and 
Sadducees ; which is proved by our Saviour in this 
passage ; and which is universally denoted by this 
term throughout the New Testament. Nothing is 
more evident, than that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
had not risen from the dead ; and that the declara- 
tion concerning them is, therefore, no proof of the 
resurrection. But it is certain, that they were living 
beings ; and, therefore, this passage is a complete 
proof, that mankind live after Death. 

" The appropriate Greek word for Resurrection is 
"EyeQoig* as in Matt. 27 : 52, 53. Many bodies of the 
saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves 
after his Resurrection ; ^za zr\v iyeqaiv avzov. 



* The distinction between eyepcLg (egersis) as denoting the resurrec- 
tion of the body, and avaoTaoig (anastasis) as indicating the future life, 
cannot, we think, be sustained. "Eyepcuc occurs but once in the New 
Testament ; and then to signify the revivification and coming out of 
the grave of Jesus Christ, as preceding the coming forth from their 
graves of certain persons whose bodies had been raised three days pre- 
viously. Matt. 27 : 53. 

The verbs that correspond to these nouns, byeipio and aviarr/fii, are 
used interchangeably. Compare eyeipo in Matt. 27: 53. Acts 3 : 15. 
4 : 10. 5 : 30. 10: 40, with LviGT7]\ii in Acts 2 : 24. 13 : 33, 34. Com- 
pare especially Acts 13 : 30 with vs. 33, 34 of the same chapter. These 
last instances must refer primarily to the body, which was not to see 
corruption ; showing that aviorrifit as well as eyeipo) is used with refer- 
ence to the raising of the body. In 1 Cor. xv. the verb is uniformly 
kyeipu, while the corresponding noun is avaoractg. 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 195 

" The dvdatamg is the thing mentioned, as having 
been denied by some of the Corinthian Christians. 
See verse 12th of the context. How say some 
among- you, that there is no resurrection, no future 
life, or existence, of the dead ? A person who reads 
the Epistles to the Corinthians with reference to the 
object, will easily perceive, that there was at least 
one heretical teacher at the head of the faction in the 
Corinthian Church, who refused submission to the 
authority of the Apostle. This man seems evidently 
to have been a Jew ; and was most probably a Sad- 
ducee ; as he brought over several members of this 
church to the great Sadducean error — the denial of 
a future state. To remove this error from that 
church, and to prevent its existence ever afterwards, 
was obviously the design of St. Paul in writing this 
chapter. Accordingly, he shows its absurdity in the 
most triumphant manner, in the first thirty-four 
verses ; and, with equal success elucidates, and 
proves, the contrary doctrine. In the remainder of 
the discourse, he dwells extensively on the nature of 
the body with which those who are dead will be in- 
vested at the final day ; declares the change which 
those who are living at that time will experience ; 
and concludes with a song of triumph over Death 
and Hades, and a solemn exhortation to Christians 
steadfastly to abound in the service of God." 

"We are happy to find ourselves sustained in the 



u 



196 ESCHATOLOGY. 

opinions we are about to express, by so illustrious a 
name. 

We approach this chapter with reverence, with 
gratitude, with joy. It presents, in all the clearness 
of day, the subject of the Anastasis and the Resur- 
rection. And we shall find it sustaining — demon- 
strating the hypothesis on which we have thus far 
proceeded in our exegesis. 

Verses 3, 4. 

HapEdotca yap vfilv ev npuroig, b For I delivered unto you first of 

not Trapelaftov , on Xpcarbg aiiidavev all that which I also received, how 

vnep ruv ufiapnuv qfitiv, Kara rag that Christ died for our sins accord- 

ypadug- (4) not on ercKbrj, not ore ing to the scriptures : (4) And that 

eyrjyepTai rfj rplnj i]jJ-epa Kara rag he was buried, and that he rose 

ypacpag. again the third day according to 

the scriptures. 

Christ actually died and was buried. It was not 
a case of asphyxia. If, then, he was afterward 
alive, it implied an anastasis. David had said of the 
Messiah, " Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see 
corruption : thou wilt shew me the path of life " (Ps. 
16 : 10, 11). That is, Christ's body should not de- 
cay, but be restored to life. This was literally ful- 
filled. He appeared and was recognized by his 
friends as in the same animal organization — " flesh 
and bones." He was handled by Thomas : he ate 
and drank (Luke 24 : 39-43. John 10 : 27. Acts 10 : 
41), which he could not have done in a spiritual and 
glorified body. "Meats" and" the belly" do not 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 



197 



belong to the spiritual body and the heavenly state. 
" God shall destroy both it and them." 



Verses 5-8. 



l\.al on cj(pd7j Kr](pg. y elra rolg <5<i- 
deita. (6) enura oxbdrj enavco ttevtc- 
KOOLOtg udeltyolg ecpurra^, e% (bv x>1 
7T?>,£iovg [tsvovoiv iug apn, riveg 6s 
Kal EKOtfirjOrjoav. (7) enetra cxpdrj 
'la/cw/3«, sua rolg o/noo-okoig ttuclv. 
(8) "Ecr^aTOv 6e rravrov, ucnepel 
tcj EKrpcofian, uxbdr/ Ku.fj.oi. 



And that he was seen of Cephas, 
then of the twelve : (6) After that, 
he was seen of above five hundred 
brethren at once ; of whom the 
greater part remain unto this pres- 
ent, but some are fallen asleep. 

(7) After that, he was seen of 
James ; then of all the apostles. 

(8) And last of all he was seen 
of me also, as of one born out of 
due time. 



These verses show that he was seen by competent 
witnesses, and in sufficient numbers. This proves 
that he was alive after his passion, but touches not 
the question of a spiritual body. 



Verses 12-16. 



Et (5e Xpiarbg KTfpvGGErat on ek 
VEnptiv Eyr)yEprat, rrug Tiiyovcl rtvEg 
ev vulv, on avacnacig VEnp&v ovk 
egtlv; (13) eI 6s avacraGig VEnptiv 
ovk egtlv, ovdk XpLGrog kyr/yEprac • 
(14) eI 81 XptGTog ovk Eytp/Eprat, 
kevov upa Kal to Krjpvyna r]fiC)V, kevt) 
6e Kal rj TctGng iifiuv. (15) EvptG- 
Kofjsda 6e Kal ipEvdo/iaprvpEg rov 
Qeov, on Efj.aprvp7jGafj.EV Kara, rov 
Qeov on rjyEips rov XptGrbv, bv ovk 
riyEipEV, EiKEp dpa vEKpol ovk kyei- 
povrai- (16) eI yap VEKpol ovk kyei- 
povrai, ovde XpiGrbg Eyf)y£prac. 



17 



Now if Christ be preached that 
he rose from the dead, how say 
some among you that there is no 
resurrection of the dead ? (13) But 
if there be no resurrection of the 
dead, then is Christ not risen. 
(14) And if Christ be not risen, 
then is our preaching vain, and 
your faith is also vain. (15) Yea, 
and we are found false witnesses 
of God ; because we have testified 
of God that he raised up Christ : 
whom he raised not up, if so be 
that the dead rise not. (16) For 
if the dead rise not, then is not 
Christ raised. 



198 ESCHATOLOGY. 

On the common hypothesis the logic of the Apos- 
tle would be this : If it is preached and is true that 
the animal body of Christ was revivified and rein- 
habited by his soul ; then it will follow that at some 
remote period in the future, spiritual bodies — per- 
haps not one particle of the material the same as that 
of their former bodies — will be given to the dead, 
and by them inhabited : — a perfect non sequitur. 
Suppose we reject the belief of spiritual bodies. 
The resurrection and post mortem history of Christ 
might have been the same as now. The great ob- 
ject of the appearing of Christ to his disciples after 
his death was unquestionably to secure upon their 
unmetaphysical minds a deep and practical convic- 
tion that he was still alive ; and, too, not a mere 
ghost of scarcely actual being, but that he lived a 
vigorous, glorious life, and would be to them an act- 
ual and available and present Saviour — as he had 
promised them just before his death. He was alive 
forevermore ; and had the keys of hell and of death ; 
and the key of David, and he opened and no man 
shut, and shut and no man opened. He was alive 
forevermore ; able to save to the uttermost. These 
convictions secured by the facts of his peculiar post 
mortem life — being present and vanishing, and re- 
appearing and vanishing again, showing that though 
unseen he was yet present — he then might have re- 
tired in spirit from this world in a method unrecog- 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 199 

nized by sense. Or, he might even, to impress upon 
their minds that he was going to heaven to be seen 
no more, have gone up as he did in fact in palpable 
manifestation, a cloud receiving him out of their 
sight. The animal body had answered its purposes, 
and the spirit might now take its departure into the 
spiritual world to live forever a spirit without a body. 
And the palpable manifestations of Christ after his 
death prove nothing in relation to a spiritual body or 
the manner of our future existence. 

But let us find some logic in this not only learned 
and acute but inspired man. If it be preached that 
Christ was alive after he had died, fcovra \izra rb 7ta- 
&uv avzov (Acts 1:3), was "he that liveth and was 
dead and is alive forevermore," so that death did not' 
affect the existence or vigor of his mind, only to en- 
hance it ; then it is a fair inference that the death of 
other men leaves the spirit in life and vigor. And so 
the converse of this. If the soul of man does not 
survive the body, then the soul of Jesus did not sur- 
vive his body : and — tremendous inference ! — the 
great doctrine of an unseen Saviour is but a fable, 
and our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. 
More than that; we are found false witnesses of 
God, for we have asserted what could not be, and 
therefore is not true. 

And we must not omit to notice that Paul in vs. 
12-15 sweeps to the winds the commonly received 



200 ESCHATOLOGY. 

notion of a miraculous resurrection. The whole 
force of the Apostle's argument in these verses rests 
upon the assumption that the Anastasis follows the 
present life by a law of nature — by an established 
order of antecedent and consequent. It were no log- 
ical inference, that because by a miracle Christ was 
alive after the death of the body, therefore other men 
would be found so. And no more logical the infer- 
ence, that if by a miracle, or rather miracles innu- 
merable, the souls of men are to be reunited to a 
spiritual body at a remote future time, therefore 
Christ was alive after he had died ; or that he was 
possessed of his animal body resuscitated ; or that he 
had a spiritual body. It does not follow that because 
a miracle has been wrought in one case, it will there- 
fore be wrought in other and similar cases. It were 
as logical to infer the resurrection of all the future 
dead from the miraculous restoration to life of Laz- 
arus. 

Verses 17-19. 

E/ 6e XpiGTog ovk eyTjyeprai, fia- And if Christ be not raised, jour 

rata rj mong ifiuv • hi tare ev ralg faith is vain ; ye are yet in your 

duapriatg ifiuv (18) upa ml ol sins. (18) Then they also which 

Koi[iriQkvi eg ev Xpiaicp aitCikovro. are fallen asleep in Christ are per- 

(19) El ev Trj far} ravry r/linKoreg ished. (19) If in this life only we 

tofiev ev XptoTcJ fiovov, eXeeivorepoc have hope in Christ, we are of all 

TtavTuv uvdpuTzcjv eafiev. men most miserable. 

The Apostle proceeds to draw other inferences 
from the assumption that Christ is not raised. The 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 201 

first is, " Ye are yet in your sins." Paul tells us 
elsewhere that Christ was raised for our justification 
(Rom. 4: 25). This must mean that after death he 
was acting in heaven as our Mediator and Interces- 
sor, urging the merits of his sufferings and death in 
our behalf, and securing thus our justification. But 
what has this function to do with the fact that his 
spirit was or was not possessed of a spiritual body ? 
Nothing. But if Christ is not alive, and in the ex- 
ercise of his prerogatives as a Mediator, it is a vital 
fact. 

Faith in Christ implies also a reliance on his grace 
— his providence and Spirit for sanctification and 
perseverance unto the end. But this grace may 
come from Christ alike if he have or have not a 
spiritual body. But if he have no existence as an 
unseen Saviour, the Christian may well despair of 
reaching heaven. 

Verse 18 is a second apodosis from the protasis in 
v. 16, " If the dead rise not." (The first, " Then is 
not Christ raised," has been already considered.) 
The inference is that the dead, who have died in 
hope of a future life through Christ, are perished. 
But how so if the question of resurrection is one of 
the possession at a future time of a spiritual body ? 
Are the saints not happy now as mere spirits ? Are 
not, on the common theory, Abraham and Isaac 
and Jacob now in a happy heaven ? And if they 



202 ESCHATOLOGY. 

are not hereafter to receive spiritual bodies, will it be 
perdition ? And so of all the saints. Are not those 
who die in the Lord " blessed ? " But if there is no 
future state, then are they perished indeed. 

And next (v. 19), if there is no Anastasis, it fol- 
lows that men become disciples to Christ only with 
reference to the present. But on this hypothesis 
Paul thinks Christians are of all men most to be 
pitied — that they would not receive an equivalent 
for all their self-denial and persecutions from attach- 
ment to this Master. They might prefer to be the 
disciples of Plato or some other teacher of virtue. 
But how, on the common theory, does this follow ? 
On this theory if there is no resurrection, Christ 
would have gone to the spiritual world a spirit only. 
But he might still be a Saviour in all the vigor of a 
glorious Spirit. And his disciples would still have 
hope in him, and expect to enjoy the privileges of 
his administration in a future world. 

Verses 20-23. 

"Nvvt 6e Xptordg eyrjyepTai en But now is Christ risen from the 

venptiv, unapxrj rcbv KSKocfCT][j.Evo)v. dead, and become the first-fruits of 

(21 ) erreid^ yap 61 avOpuirov 6 dava- them that slept. (21) Eor since 

rog, ml dt.' avOpunov avaoTaoig ve- by man came death, by man came 

Kpiov. (22) uonep yap kv rai 'Adu.fi. also the resurrection of the dead. 

irdvreg aKodvyoKovotv, ovro) ml kv (22) For as in Adam all die, even 

tcj XpiGTu iravieg ^uoTroirjdfjaovrai. so in Christ shall all be made 

(23) emoTog 6e ev r<p Idle) ray/nan' alive. (23) But every man in his 

aizapxrj XpiGToc, emira ol rov Xpi- own order, Christ the first-fruits ; 

orov kv rj? napovola avrov. afterward they that are Christ's at 

his coming. 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 203 

The Apostle regards the question as settled. 
Christ is alive from the dead. And not only so, but 
he is the " first-fruits " of the harvest of the righteous. 
He represents them in kind. "What he is, they are 
to be. And as he was " alive after his passion," and 
in the full and unimpaired exercise of all the powers 
of his mind and heart, so will it be with his disci- 
ples. 

But " first-fruits " as applied to Christ implies 
more than in the original use of the word. The 
Patriarchs and early ancestors of the Jewish na- 
tion were called first-fruits (Rom. 11 : 16). Christ 
was to be the spiritual Ancestor of a great multitude 
which no man could number. For as by Adam 
death was brought into the world, so by Christ life 
would come to men. And as a thought worthy of 
consideration : the first-fruits were followed immedi- 
ately by the incoming harvest. So that harvest of 
which Christ was the first-fruits began at once to 
come in, and from that day onward the golden 
sheaves have accumulated. 

The Apostle tells us how we are made alive. We 
sin through Adam seriatim, generation after genera- 
tion : so we are raised to life by Christ seriatim, gen- 
eration after generation ; every man in his own par- 
ticular order or rank (rdyfia). This is a military 
term and signifies a division or brigade, and refers to 
men as passing into the future life in succession or 



204 ESCHATOLOGY. 

seriatim. Christ the great Leader has led the way, 
and Christians will follow in their several orders or 
ranks, as Christ shall come for them severally- — in 
other words at their death. The Anastasis to the 
individual dates from the Parousia (" they that are 
Christ's at Ms coming "), in fulfilment of the prom- 
ise, " I will come again and receive you unto myself; 
that where I am, there ye may be also." 

Veeses 24-28. 

EIra rb rehog, brav Ttapadtj rrjv Then cometh the end, when he 
(3aoi7ietav rib Qeti ml izarpi, brav shall have delivered up the king- 
mrapyqori rtaoav dpxvv ^ol ndoav dom to God, even the Father ; 
etjovciav ml dvvafuv (25) del yap when he shall have put down all 
avrov j3aai?iEveiv, dxpig ov av drj rule, and all authority and power. 
rrdvrag rove exdpovg vtto rovg izodag (25 ) For he must reign, till he hath 
avrov. (26) eoxarog fydpog mrap- put all enemies under his feet. 
yelrai 6 ddvarog- (27) lidvra yap (26) The last enemy that shall be 
vnera^ev vizb rovg nodag avrov •■ destroyed is death. (27) For he 
brav 6e el-ny on rrdvra virorhaniai, hath put all things under his feet. 
dfjlov brt enrbg rov vivord^avTog But when he saith, all tilings are 
avrij rd ndvra- (28) brav 6e vno- put under him, it is manifest that 
Tayrj avr& rd ndvra, roie ml avrbg he is excepted which did put all 
6 vlbg vitoTayrjaerat tcj vTrordtjavn things under him. (28) And when 
avrC) rd izdvra, Iva y 6 Qebg rd all things shall be subdued unto 
irdvra kv •ndaiv. him, then shall the Son also him- 

self be subject unto him that put 
all things under him, that God 
may be all in all. 

Then the end, rslog, the consummated state. Chris- 
tians will then have attained the perfected state of 
being, constitutionally, and also perfection of moral 
character. God's government as administered over 
that world will be perfectly obeyed. Christ will 



I. CORINTHIANS XY. 205 

have reestablished (rtaQadqi) the kingdom to God. 
The saints that were once rebels will be now and 
forever loyal to God. All opposing power and au- 
thority will be unknown, or rendered nugatory 
('/.axaQyijOij). Then will be fulfilled the promise to 
the Messiah (Ps. 110 : 1) that he should put all ene- 
mies under his feet. Even the last enemy, death, 
will be destroyed. The blessed inhabitants of that 
world wall be, like their Head, " alive forevermore." 
There will be no exception : " all things " will be 
subdued. Not, of course, that He who put all 
things under his feet, is to be himself subordinate. 
For when the " all things " promised shall be put 
under the Son, even then the Son as Messiah will 
be subordinate to God. 

These verses are descriptive of the heavenly state 
of those redeemed from among men by the grace of 
Christ. He will then have brought them to the 
promised and the consummated state of their being 
as redeemed sinners. 

The language of these verses can have but a very 
partial appropriateness on the common theory of the 
Resurrection. If the resurrection of the body were 
the subject of consideration, the xzlog (end) would 
be spoken of as attained by this new and wonder- 
fully improved mode of existence. But no : it is 
made to consist in the perfect holiness of that state. 

18 



206 ESCHATOLOGY. 

This alone is spoken of. The government of God 
is reestablished. God is perfectly obeyed. But per- 
fect holiness on the common theory will have been 
attained, in respect to many, thousands of years be- 
fore. True, the union of the soul with its body may 
be said to be the consummating fact. Then why in 
expanding the idea is there no allusion to that fact, 
instead only of the perfect holiness that had been 
realized so long before. 

Verse 29. 

''E'keI tl -KOLTjaovatv ol panned- Else what shall they do which 

fievoi virlp tcjv venpuv, el oAwf vek- are baptized for the dead, if the 

pot ovk E-yeipovrac; tl not jSaTrri- dead rise not at all? why are they 

tpvTat inep avrcjv ; then baptized for the dead 1 

Among the multitudinous interpretations given to 
this text, our own mind — independently of the sup- 
port which it gives to the theory now advocated — 
adopts as most probable that which supposes per- 
sons converted to come and fill, in the church, the 
places of those who had been removed by death — 
perhaps the death of the persecuted (v. 32). If 
there was not a future life upon which hope could 
fasten, why should men come forward in a day of 
persecution, and expose themselves to the same death, 
which a profession of the religion of Christ had 
brought upon those whose places they wished to 
fill? 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 207 

Verses 30-32. 

Ti teal rjuelg Kivdwevopev Trdaav And why stand we in jeopardy 

upav; (31 ) nad' fyfiepav urcodvr]GKcd, every hour? (31) I protest by 

vrj tt/v v/xerepav kovx^oiv, tjv exu ev your rejoicing which I have in 

Xpioru 'lqcov Toj Kvpiu 7][mC)v. (32) Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 

el Kara avdpconov kdrjpioiiaxTjaa ev (32) If after the manner of men I 

''Etyeac), ri fioc to bdelog, el venpol have fought with beasts at Ephe- 

ovk eyeipovrai; (bayufiev KaiTriufiev, sus, what advantageth it me, if 

avpiov yap aTrodvqciiOfiev. the dead rise not 1 let us eat and 

drink; for to-morrow we die. 

The idea which we have supposed to be contained 
in v. 29 is followed out in these. The emphatic 
word in v. 30 is " we." He brings the case right 
home to himself and his fellow -laborers. Why do 
tve expose ourselves to such constant danger ? For 
by the joy which I* have in Christ Jesus, as con- 
scious of my fidelity to him, in the midst of dangers, 
and which I could have only as I was thus faithful, 
I die day by day ; I am living in a state of constant 
exposure to death — the result of my faithful ad- 
herence to principle. And what motive could I have 
to expose myself, as men do, to fight with wild 
beasts at Ephesus, if there is no future state ? None 
at all. Let us rather live after the infidel creed: 
* Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die : " death an 
eternal sleep. 



* Some, on the authority of the Codex Alexandrinus, read 7j(ierspav 
for vfierepav. So Griesbach. 



208 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



Verses 33, 34. 

Mr} Trlavuade ■ ddeipovatv fjdrj xpV- Be not deceived : Evil commu- 
cra dfzcllai nanai. (34) EKVJjtpaTe nications corrupt good manners. 
dmaiug, nal urj afiapTavere- ayvu- (34) Awake to righteousness, and 
aiav yup Qeov rtveg exovac 7rpoc sin not; for some have not the 
evrponqv vfj.lv leycj. knowledge of God : I speak this to 

your shame. 

This shows that the Apostle is in this chapter re- 
plying to the objections of evil and designing men 
against whose influence he cautions the Corinthians. 



Verse 35. 



'A1V kpel tiq' Tl&g hyupovrai 61 
veiipoi; ttocu) 6e curare kpxovrai ; 



But some man will say, How are 
the dead raised up ? and with what 
hody do they come 1 



How do the dead exist in a future state ? This is 
the language of an objector, and proceeds on the 
assumption — and we will grant his assumption — 
that created spirits can exist only in a state of cor- 
poreity. We, says the objector, have their bodies, 
and know that they do not inhabit them, and there- 
fore that they are not in existence. The soul must 
die with the body. 

It should be noticed that the verbs are both in the 
present tense. Not how will the dead be raised, 
and how vnll they come ? as if the raising of the 
body were to be in the future. The objector under- 
stood the doctrine of the Anastasis to be, that the 
person dying was anastasized at once and at the 
time of death. 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 209 

Verse 36-38. 

"ktypov, cv b cKeipetg, ov faoiroi- Thou fool, that which thou sow- 

elrcu, euv fir] unodavij' (37) nal b est is not quickened, except it die : 

CTTeipug, ov to aufia to yevrjao^evov (37) And that which thou so west, 

GTzeipeic, (DCka yvfivbv kokkov, el thou sowest not that body that 

tvxol, gltov 7] tivoq t&v 2.ot7ctiv ' shall be, but bare grain, it may 

(38) 6 6s Qsbg amu didoai c&fia chance of wheat, or of some other 

Kaddg TjdilrjGE, nal ekcigtu tljv oivep- grain : (38) But God giyeth it si 

(j-utuv to Idtov GcJ/j,a. body as it hath pleased Mm, and 

to every seed his own body. 

The Apostle does not give the objector credit for 
a very profound philosophy. " Thou fool ! " As 
much as to say, all analogy leads us to the doctrine 
of another body that shall succeed the present. Paul 
does not refer to the worm and the chrysalis and the 
butterfly with its gorgeous wings and easy locomo- 
tion, but, as more to his purpose, refers to the pro- 
cesses of the vegetable kingdom. Let it be granted 
that the kernel of grain, deposited in the earth, re- 
mains there and goes to decay ; just as the human 
body goes to decay and perishes : yet, contemporane~ 
ously with the commencement of the decay of the ker- 
nel, there springs from it another and exceedingly 
different structure. So with the body of man. Con- 
temporaneously — this is the necessary import of the 
comparison — with the commencement of the decay, 
there springs from it a new and different structure. 
It is indeed a body, as really as is the present, but it 
does not by any means . follow that it shall not be a 

18* 



210 ESCHATOLOGY. 

much more glorious body — as much more as heaven 
is more glorious than earth. This thought he illus- 
trates in the following verses. 

The illustration of the grain is beautifully sig- 
nificant on our theory. But not so on the common 
theory. That would require that the kernel should 
go to decay and disintegration, and remain in that 
state long ages ; and that then from this dust a veg- 
etable germ should spring up and grow. Are we 
told this might be by miracle, and that the resurrec- 
tion at the last day will be miraculous ? Then we 
answer, there is no propriety in the argument of the 
Apostle. He would have simply said, God will do 
so and so by miracle. The fact that the Apostle 
argues the case, and adduces an illustration from 
nature, is evidence positive that the resurrection is a 
natural process, and one that may be illustrated by 
another process in nature. And if so, then this illus- 
tration proves that the development of the spiritual 
body is contemporaneous with the decay of the 
animal body. 

Verses 39-41. 

Ob iraaa cap!- rj avrrj cap^,- alia All flesh is not the same flesh, 

ak7.r] [lev avdpuTtuv, allrj 6e cup!; but there is one kind of flesh of 

kttjvuv, uklr) 6h Ixdvuv, uKkq 6e men, another flesh of beasts, an- 

7tt7]vgjv. (40) ml aufxara sirovpu- other of fishes, and another of 

via, ical cu/iara em-yeta- ul' hepa birds. (40) There are also celes- 

fiev 7] t&v eTrovpaviov 66^a, erspa 6s tial bodies, and bodies terrestrial : 

if t&v smysiuv. (41) aXfo) 66fr but the glory of the celestial is one, 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 211 

rfKiov, nal uXkq do^a aeTirjvrjg, nal and the glory of the terrestrial is 
u/Jir] <56£a uorspov ' aairjp yap another. (41) There is one glory 
aarepog dcatyepec kv d6%y. of the sun, and another glory of 

the moon, and another glory of the 
stars, for one star differeth from 
another star in glory. 



There are differences in the bodies of animals of 
earth composed of flesh, as of men, beasts, fishes, 
birds. Then again there are bodies of heavenly be- 
ings, as distinguished from the bodies of beings that 
dwell on the earth. And if we pass to the inanimate 
creation, we find a difference in the degrees of beauty 
and glory, as between the sun, moon, and stars ; and 
the latter differ from each other in splendor. 

It has been supposed that by am^ara Inovqavta 
(bodies celestial) was meant heavenly bodies in the 
astronomic sense. But this would be in advance of 
the astronomy of that day. From any authorities in 
our reach, neither the noun nor the adjective is used 
in this sense. According to Liddell and Scott, tTtov- 
Qavia (heavenly) is applied by Homer only to the 
gods, and by Pindar to the souls of the good or pious. 
These are the only instances given of the use of the 
word. So of 6(6^iara (bodies). The word, as by this 
high authority, is never used in the astronomic sense. 
If we turn to the use of tTZovgdvia elsewhere in the 
New Testament, we shall not find a solitary instance 
of approach to the astronomic import. It always 
has the religious sense. The word occurs in vs. 48 



212 ESCHATOLOGY. 

and 49, and in a connection that must determine the 
meaning in v. 40. Besides, if v. 40 refers to the ce- 
lestial bodies astronomic, v. 41 would be a sort of 
repetition. At any rate the progress which our in- 
terpretation implies, in the train of thought, would 
be wanting. ' In v. 39, different animate bodies of 
earth are compared ; in v. 40, these are compared 
with the animate bodies in heaven. In v. 41 the 
comparison is between different inanimate objects, 
and those of the greatest splendor and glory. Yet 
again : if we speak of the bodies heavenly in the 
astronomic sense, what are the bodies earthly that 
furnish the contrast ? The sun, moon, and stars 
would not be contrasted with men or animals that 
have bodies. With what, then, are they contrasted ? 
The heavenly bodies may be compared with each 
other, even as seen by the unastronomic eye of the 
ancient ; but not with any thing on the earth. 

By heavenly bodies, then, the Apostle meant the 
bodies of angels and of the glorified of men. For, 
that angels have bodies, is inferred from the fact, that 
men in heaven are " like unto the angels." But men 
in heaven are to have bodies. 

Verses 42-44. 

Ovro) teal 7] avaaraaig rtiv veupCov. So also is the resurrection of the 

CTTeiperac kv (pfiopd, kyeiperai kv a- dead. It is sown in corruption, it is 

(b-d-apaia- (43) axdpeiaL kv arLfua, raised in incorruption : (43) It is 

kyeiperai kv doE,^ • CKeipercu kv sown in dishonor, it is raised in 

uadeveia, kyeiperac kv dwapec. (44) glory: it is sown in weakness, it is 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 213 

oneipeTai o&fia ipvxmbv, eyeiperai raised in power : (44) It is sown a 
cio(j.a nvevfiariKov. egtl aufia ipvxi- natural body, it is raised a spiritual 
kov, ml ecTt G&fia TtvevfiaTinov. body. There is a natural body, 

and there is a spiritual body. 



The above instances of the different degrees of 
glory that belong to different bodies as material sub- 
stances, illustrate the difference between the present 
body and the future body. The present, that answers 
to the grain sown, is corruptible ; the future body 
that answers to the vegetable growth, is incorrupti- 
ble : the present is dishonored — dishonored in its 
uses, and finally buried out of sight as offensive ; the 
future will be glorious in all its uses, and lovely to 
behold in its unfading beauty : the present is weak ; 
the future will be possessed of great power. In a 
word, the present is an animal-life (\pv/u6v) body; 
the future will be a mind (7ivsv[xazix6v) body. For 
there is an animal-life body, and there is a mind 
body. 

We are not certain that it was the design of the 
Spirit, in the use of the present tense, to indicate the 
fact — if such it be — that there is at present in the 
composition of man, a twofold body, answering to 
the 7ZV£v(Aa (spirit) and the tyvpi (soul) of 1 Thess. 5 : 
23, though certainly it harmonizes with that hypothe- 
sis. The animal-life body is (v. 46) the first in the 
order of development, and subserves the purposes of 
the present life. The mind body is at present in a 



214 ESCHATOLOGY. 

sort of embryo state, and to be born at the death of 
the present body, when the corruptible shall give 
place to the incorruptible. The last clause of v. 44 
has the appearance of the conclusion of a train of 
thought — the way for which had been prepared by 
a series of comparisons — in the simple statement of 
fact. As if he had said the difference between the 
two bodies is, in a word, simply this : the one is an 
animal-life body, the other is a mind body. Man 
consists of Tzvsv^a and iiw/?/, mind and animal life, with 
a body that is twofold and separable ; — the grosser 
now developed and active, the more subtile in wait- 
ing to be developed, and to subserve the purposes of 
the mind in its future and heavenly state. That is 
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; 
and afterward that which is spiritual (v. 46). That 
repetition and emphatic statement in v. 44 is signifi- 
cant. 

It may be objected that classic use does not sus- 
tain the distinction here made between nvevpa and 
yvp]. That may be. Classic writers employed these 
terms in accordance with their philosophy of man. 
But what is all the philosophy of heathendom? 
May we know the philosophy of the Bible. 

Verses 45-49. 

Outo nal yeypa-KTcu' ''Eyevero 6 And so it is written, The first 
rcpuTog uvdpunog 'Ada// elg ipvxvv man Adam was made a living 
&oav • 6 eaxarog 'Adu/i elg nvev/ia soul ; the last Adam was made a 



I. CORINTHIANS XV. 215 

&OW010VV. (46) ukTi ov Tvp&Tov to quickening spirit. (46) Howbeit 

Tcvevftannbv, a/Ua to ipvxt-Kov, enei- that was not fix's t which is spirit- 

Ta to -KvevjiciTiKov. (47 ) 6 TrpuToc ual, but that which is natural ; and 

uvdpcmog en -yfjg, xo'^og • 6 dsvTepog afterward that which is spiritual. 

avdpoirog, 6 Kvpcog e£ ovpavov. (48) (47 ) The first man is of the earth, 

olog 6 xolK.bg, tocovioc ual 61 xoinoi • earthy : the second man is the 

ml olog 6 enovpaviog, toloviol ml ol Lord from heaven. (48) As is the 

kirovpuvLoi- (49) ual tcadug ktyope- earthy, such are they also that are 

aafiev ttjv ehova rov xolkov, <bop£- earthy : and as is the heavenly, 

cofisv ual ttjv eUova tov enovpa- such are they also that are heaven- 

VL0V ' \j. (49) And as we have borne 

the image of the earthy, we shall 
also bear the image of the heaven- 

Adam was made for (elg) an animal life. This he 
had, and this he propagated. Christ was for (elg) a 
life-imparting spirit. The spiritual life of men as 
redeemed sinners with all that pertains to their future 
life and well being, is from Christ. He is the Anas- 
tasis and the life. The adjectives " spiritual " and 
" natural " in v. 46 are the same as in v. 44. The 
connection would seem to make them refer to the 
first and second Adam of v. 45. "We think they 
are designed to cover both vs. 44, 45. Thus : The 
first (ipvyixov) Adam, and the animal-life body, and 
the world in which it is are first in order : the second 
(rtveviiatMov) Adam, and the mind body, and the 
spiritual and heavenly life are subsequent in order. 
In vs. 47-49 Adam and Christ are contrasted, and 
our present life compared to the former, and our 
future fife to the latter. We are now like Adam, 
we shall be like Christ. "When he who is the be- 



216 



ESCHATOLOGY. 



liever's life shall appear, we shall be like him, and 
appear with him in glory. 



Verses 50-54. 



Tovw 6e 6r] fit, adsTiyoi, otl aup^ 
ical alfia j3aai?ietav Qeov K^rjpovo- 
pjjaai ov dvvavrai, ovde r) 66opd ttjv 
acpdapciav hAypovofiel. (51) 'ldoi> 
{ivoTTjpcov vfuv Tiiyo * Travreg [ilv 
ov Koi{j,7}d7]c6(j£da ■ Tidvreg 51 uKXaye- 
ooftEda, (52) ev ctTOfiy, ev fitTcy 
ooOaTifiov, ev ry kaxo-Trj ouTimyyc 
caXmcEt yap, nal ol VEnpol eyEp- 
OfjaovTat, atydaproi, nal fyfiElg lik- 
XayTjaSfiEda. (53) dsl yup to (j>dap- 
rbv tovto EvdvcacOcu uddapoiav, nal 
to dvTjTov tovto Evdvoaodai ddava- 
oiav. (54) "Otov 6e to (pdapTov tovto 
£vdvo7]Tai a<bdapoiav, nal to OvrjTov 
tovto Evdvc7]7(U ddavaoiav, tote 
yEvrjOETat 6 Tioyog 6 ysypa/ifiEvog' 
'KaTETiodrj 6 ddvaTog Eig vlnog. 



Now this I say, brethren, that 
flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God ; neither doth 
corruption inherit incorruption. 
(51) Behold I shew you a mys- 
tery; We shall not all sleep, but 
we shall all be changed, (52) In a 
moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the last trump : for the 
trumpet shall sound, and the dead 
shall be raised incorruptible, and 
we shall be changed. (53) For 
this corruptible must put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal must put 
on immortality. (54) So when this 
corruptible shall have put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal shall have 
put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is 
written, Death is swallowed up in 
victory. 



The present body is unfit for the heavenly state. 
The notions of past times had been crude (2 Mace. 
7 : 9 seq.), and in many respects erroneous in relation 
to the mode of future existence. The time had come 
for explanation. Listen, then, says the Apostle, and 
I will reveal to you what has hitherto been un- 
explained ([ivGrrjQiov). We shall not all sleep. This 
euphemism has been construed by many literally. 
The Thessalonians have so understood it, as also 



I. COBINTHIANS XV. 217 

some of you at Corinth. Death is not a sleep. But 
we shall all be changed. And this change will occur 
instantly at death, and we shall spring into a new 
life incorruptible. I repeat, we shall all be changed. 
When the Lord shall appear to take us to heaven, 
we shall experience a great change by which this 
corruptible and perishing organization shall give 
place to an indestructible and immortal body. We 
shall, in instant succession, be unclothed of our 
earthly tent, and clothed upon with our heavenly 
dwelling (2 Cor. 5: 1-4). Then, "Death wiU be 
swallowed up in victory." 

" At the last trump," v. 52. The reader is referred 
to our explanation of 1 Thess. 4 : 16 infra. When 
the believer dies, God is represented as coming with 
a heavenly host, marshalled by an archangel, who 
gives command to his numerous convoy through a 
trumpet. The idea, then, is that when God shall 
thus come to take the good man to heaven, the 
instant glorious change will occur. 

Yerses 55-58. 

Iloii oov, ddvare, rb nevrpov ; nov O death, where is thy sting ? 

gov, adrj, to vikoq ; (56) To 6e new- O grave, where is thy victory? 

pov rov davdrov, tj dfiapria- rj oe (56) The sting of death is sin ; and 

dvva^ig TTjQ dfiapriag, 6 vofiog • (57) the strength of sin is the law. 

tu 6e 6e"> ^apif r<p didovrt rjjxlv rb (57) But thanks be to God which 

vln.og o7« rov Kvpcov 7](iibv 'Itjgov giveth us the victory through our 

Xpiorov. (58) ware, ddelfyoi ■ (iov Lord Jesus Christ. (58) Therefore, 

dyaiT7]Tol, idpaloi yiveode, dfieraici- my beloved brethren, be ye stead- 

vr,roi, nepiooevovTeg. hv tw zpyu rov fast, immovable, always abound- 

19 



218 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Kvplov Travroie, elSoreg on 6 nonog ing in the work of the Lord, foras- 
v/iuv ova ean nevbg ev YLvpiG). much as ye know that your labor 

is not in vain in the Lord. 

Can this inference of triumph be derived from the 
mere doctrine that the soul in some distant future is 
to experience a modification for the better of its con- 
dition ? But as an inference from the doctrine of an 
immortal and blessed life, to those who had no defi- 
nite belief on the subject, how legitimate ! Death is 
indeed deprived of his sting. There is a future life 
to which death introduces us, and though sinners, 
yet in Christ, the strength and power of sin from its 
relations to law, are taken away. The Christian has 
not in this life only, hope in Christ. His hope is 
" full of immortality." There is therefore the strong- 
est conceivable motive to be steadfast, unmovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord, since he 
now knows that his labor is not in vain in the Lord. 
It shall be the seed of a rich and an immortal har- 
vest. 

1 Tiiessalonians 4: 13-18. 

Ov delofiev de vfiug ayvoelv, adeX- But I would not have you to be 

<poi, nepl rcJv KeK0L(x7}(j.£vov, Iva (j.7) ignorant, brethren, concerning 

"kwKrjode, naddg nai ol IolttoI ol (it) them which are asleep, that ye sor- 

exovTsg eXnlda. (14) el yap ircarevo- row not, even as others which have 

\iev ore 'Irjoovg tnredave nal aviarr}, no hope. (14) For if we believe 

ovtcj ko2 6 Qeog rovg noifirjOevTag 6iu that Jesus died and rose again, 

roil 'IrjGov a£et cvv avrcj. (15) rovro even so them also which sleep in 

yap vfuv Tieyo/xev ev Ao/cj Kvpiov, Jesus will God bring with him. 

on fjftelg ol fovreg ol neptienrofxevoi (15) For this we say unto you by 

elg ttjv napovacav iov Kvpiov ov (j,7) the word of the Lord, that we which 



PAROUSIA AND ANASTASIS ASSOCIATE. 219 

■(pdaaufi£v rovg notfi-ndevTag ■ (16) on are alive and remain unto the com- 
avrbg 6 Kvptog iv KtktvG^iaTL, iv ing of the Lord shall not prevent 
(pcovf) upxayyeTiov, nal iv oiikra-yyi them which are asleep. (16) For 
Qeov- KCLTafirjceTca ten' ovpavov, nal the Lord himself shall descend from 
ol vEKpot iv XpiGTcJ uvaGT7]covTa.L heaven with a shout, with the voice 
Tzp&Tov, (17) 1-Kuia fypeig ol Qvieg of the archangel, and with the 
ol TrepiletTTOftevoc, a{ia gvv avrolg trump of God : and the dead in 
apTray7]c6/j.£da iv vsQeliaig elg anav- Christ shall rise first: (17) Then 
ttjglv tov Kvpiov elg aepa nal ovto we which are alive and remain 
Ttavrore gvv Kvplu eGo/xeda. (18) shall be caught up together with 
uGre irapanaTieiTe uXkrjAovg iv rolg them in the clouds, to meet the 
?,6yoig rovroig. Lord in the air : and so shall we 

ever be with the Lord . (18) Where- 
fore comfort one another with 
these words. 

This is from the pen of one accustomed to the 
style of the Old Testament. It partakes largely 
of the Hebrew idiom. It is the language of bold 
imagery.* It would seem that the Apostle had used 



* The following are extracts from Notes by Prof. Stuart in his edi- 
tion of Ernesti's " Elements of Interpretation." 

" Who is ignorant of the innumerable controversies that have arisen 
about the tropical and literal sense of a multitude of passages in the 
Sacred Writings % Almost all the enthusiasm and extravagance that 
have been exhibited in respect to religion, have had no better support 
than gross material conceptions of figurative language ; or, not unfrequent- 
ly, language that should be properly understood has been tropically con- 
strued. There is no end to the mistakes on this ground. Nor are they 
limited to enthusiasts and fanatics. They develop themselves not un- 
frequently in the writings of men grave, pious, excellent, and in other 
parts of theological science very learned. Indeed, it is but a recent 
thing that it has come to be considered as a science, and a special and 
essential branch of theological science, to study the nature of language, 
and above all the nature of the Oriental, Biblical languages. Long 
has this been admitted in respect to the classics, and all works of sci- 
ence in ancient languages. But in regard to the Bible, the most ancient 
book in the world, and written in a language the idiom of which is 



220 ESCHATOLOGY. 

the same or similar language when at Thessalonica. 
But, addressed to Greeks, it was understood literally 
— just as modern Occidentals have understood it — 
all save that they did not, as do the moderns, locate 
the facts in the distant future. They were Waiting 
for them as soon to occur. They were interested in 
them, and esteemed it a privilege and an honor to 
be spectators and participators. It would seem that 
they were looking to the Parousia as a scene of 
earth, and to belong to the present life. Hence when 
some of their friends died, they mourned for them as 
lost to this " kingdom and glory." 



exceedingly diverse from our own, it seems to have been very gen- 
erally taken for granted, that no other study was necessary to discover 
its meaning, than what is devoted to any common English book. At 
least, a Bible with marginal references, studied by a diligent and care- 
ful use of these references, might surely be understood in a most satis- 
factory manner. In very many cases, the first thing has been to study 
theology ; the second, to read the Bible, in order to find proofs of what 
has already been adopted as matter of belief. This order is now be- 
ginning to be reversed. The nature of language, of Scripture lan- 
guage, of figurative language, and of interpretation, is now beginning 
to be studied as a science, the acquisition of which is one of the great- 
est ends of study ; as it is the only proper mode of leading the theolo- 
gian to the knowledge of what the Bible really contains. Here, too, is 
a common arbiter of the disputes that exist in the Christian world. 
The nature of language and of tropical words, thoroughly understood, will 
prostrate, among all intelligent and candid men who really love the truth, a 
great part of all the diversities of opinion that exist." — p. 74. 

" The time is coming (I cannot doubt it), when all the dark places of 
the Bible loill be elucidated to the satisfaction of intelligent and humble Chris- 
tians. But how near at hand that blessed day is, I do not pretend to 
know. ' The Lord hasten it in its time ! ' " — p. 19. 



PAKOUSIA AND ANASTASIS ASSOCIATE. 221 

To correct this error, and to furnish the material 
with which they may " comfort one another," is the 
object of what is said in these verses. 

The Apostle still uses the same language of image- 
ry, and is again misunderstood, as appears from the 
second epistle. Nor has the misunderstanding been 
confined to his day. 

Let us attend carefully to the train of thought. 
Verse 13 represents the Thessalonians as mourning 
for their friends who had died, as having no hope of 
them. And from verse 14 it would seem that they 
doubted of their future existence. They were also 
looking for the glorious kingdom of Christ, but, as 
we have said, thought it a thing of time and earth, 
so that to the dead all of it was lost. Paul corrects 
both these errors. 

Verse 14. If we believe that Jesus died and was 
anastasized, so also those who have died a Christian 
death will God bring with him. This asserts and 
proves the future life of Christians. They will die 
and be anastasized as was Christ. 

" Bring with him." The figure in relation to the 
Parousia is that of unveiling, manifesting, coming, 
especially the latter. When, then, Christ " comes " 
to believers, he will " bring with him " those who 
have died. As he comes, they will come. When 
he is present, they will' be present. That is, they 
are in the heavenly state as he is. He has changed 

19* 



222 ESCHATOLOGY. 

their vile body, so that it is fashioned like to his 
glorious body. And when the living, who are in 
waiting for the Parousia, shall experience the change 
by which they will be able to recognize as present 
the Saviour, they will be able to recognize as pres- 
ent their Christian friends who have died. But 
further, and with reference to the Coming and King- 
dom of Christ, 

Verse 15. This we say unto you by divine au- 
thority, that we, who are alive and left yet to meet 
the Coming of the Lord, shall have no advantage 
over those that have died. Here the living are 
represented as left unto, or as yet to meet the Coming 
of the Lord, and thus distinguished from the dead 
who have experienced this meeting (drtavrr^iv, v. 17). 

" Shall have no advantage over" ov ^rj qi&dacoixsv. 
Hermann on the use of the subjunctive aorist, or 
the indicative future with ov pr}, proposes the follow- 
ing canon : " Conjunctivo aor. locus est aut in eo, 
quod jam actum est, aut in re incerti temporis sed 
semel vel brevi temporis momento agenda; futuri 
vero usus, quern ipsa verbi forma nonnisi in rebus 
futur. versari ostendit, ad ea pertinet, quae aut diu- 
turniora aliquando eventura indicare volumnus aut 
non aliquo quocunque sed remotiore aliquo tempore 
dicimus futura esse." 

Winer thinks this canon cannot have universal 
application to the New Testament, and refers to our 



PAROUSIA AND ANASTASIS ASSOCIATE. 223 

text as an exception. The reader will see that our 
theory makes the canon and the text agree. The 
reference of yd damper is " in re incerti temporis sed 
semel vel brevi temporis momento agenda." It 
follows, then, that this canon gives all the authority 
of a general principle to our support. — Winer, 
Idioms, § 60. 3. 

Verse 16. For the Lord himself with a shout, 
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump 
of God, will descend from heaven : and the dead in 
Christ will be previously anastasized. 

" The Lord himself." Jesus, in whom the believer 
has so much confidence and hope, will come down 
and be personally present and the Actor in this great 
transaction. This is said as encouragement to the 
fearful. 

" With a shout," &c. These are terms derived 
from the vocabulary of war, and imply the methods 
by which hosts are led or incited. " The Lord 
cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute 
judgment," &c. Jude 14. " Them that sleep in 
Jesus will God bring with him " (v. 14 above). The 
representation is that of the heavenly hosts coming 
to meet the saint in the Parousia* They are led on 
by an archangel. The " shout " (xEXevapa, " the word 
of command in war," " cry of incitement, of urging 
on ") is " the voice of an archangel ; " and this 
word of command and incitement is given, as was 



224 ESCHATOLOGY. 

the custom when the host was large, with a trumpet. 
It is called "the trump of God" to imply that it 
" sounds by command of God." — Rob. Lex. 0to?, a. (1. 

" Previously anastasized," dvaarijGovtai, future mid- 
dle ; will raise themselves or rise : that is, will be 
previously living the future life — be in the exercise 
of the functions of that life. When Christ comes to 
us the living, who are in waiting (TtEQilsMopevoi), the 
dead will be already in his presence — will come 
with him (v. 14). 

Verse 17. Then we the living thaf are left, shall 
be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air 
together with them. And thus we shall all be with 
the Lord. 

tr A\iLa. ovv avtoTg (with them) does not modify 
aQ7tapi66(Atd-a (shall be caught up) merely, but the 
entire sentence. See chap. 5 : 10. The dead have 
been already caught up or anastasized (v. 16). This 
is implied in ol ^covreg oi TtsQileiTtofievoi — the living 
who are yet left over unto the Parousia (v. 15), as 
distinguished from the dead. 

" "We shall all," &c. Some manuscripts have 
Ttavtsg for Ttdvrore. The connection would seem very 
greatly to favor this reading. 

" In clouds." The reference is to clouds as sur- 
rounding those that ascend, and not to a multitude 
as rising like a cloud. For h vscpslcug, see Mark 13 : 
26. The idea conveyed would be that of locomo- 
tion rapid and without effort. 
/ l| 



PAROUSIA AND ANASTASIS ASSOCIATE. 225 

The use of ?i[ieTg oi tavzsg, we the living, is decisive 
in applying the language in connection to the Thes- 
salonian Christians and to Paul himself — to the 
persons then living. To say " we " means " such of 
our race as shall be living many thousand years 
hence " is to abjure the most certain and obvious 
laws of language. Besides, the " we " in such case 
would be but an infinitesimal portion of the race, 
and to which neither the Thessalonians nor Paul, 
nor generations countless that should succeed, would 
belong. " We," then, on the common hypothesis 
should by all means include Paul and those ad- 
dressed and all the multitude immense that would be 
in heaven at " the end of the world." And Paul 
should have said, " They the living that remain." 

The language of the following chapter is decisive 
-in applying that of these verses to the persons then 
living. The Thessalonians knew perfectly that the 
day of the Lord, by which is meant the Parousia of 
v. 15, might come at any time. The wicked would 
not heed the facts that made this certain to Chris- 
tians, and would cry peace and safety, but sudden 
destruction would come upon them. They would 
meet the destroyer, and sink into the grave and into 
perdition. But they, as Christians, were not in the 
darkness of an impenitent heart. They were the 
children of fight. They .must not, then, permit " that 
day " — the allusion was understood — to find them 



226 ESCHATOLOGY. 

unprepared. If this does not make death and the 
day of the Lord, — the great matter considered in 
vs. 13-18 of the previous chapter, — synchronical, 
we know not how it could be shown to be so by any 
use of language. 

Let us view in connection what we have found to 
be the meaning of the Apostle in these words, that 
have, as we think, been so greatly misunderstood by 
commentators. The Thessalonians need not mourn 
for such of their Christian friends as had died, as if 
they were lost to the glorious kingdom of Christ. 
They were not " asleep," but " changed " (1 Cor. 15: 
52). For the same reason that we could believe that 
Christ was still alive after death, might we believe 
them still alive : so that when Christ should come, 
they would come with him. In other words, when 
they themselves should be the subjects of a change 
that would enable them to see Christ, they would 
also be able to see their deceased friends. They 
would find them possessed of a full and vigorous 
being in the heavenly world. So that the living who 
were yet in waiting for the Parousia, would have no 
advantage over those who had died in the Lord. 
For Jesus is soon to come to us, and bring with him 
the heavenly hosts ; and the dead in Christ will be 
previously of that host. Then we, the living, drop- 
ping the burden of our clay, and now of easy loco- 
motion, shall be caught up, borne on clouds into 






PAROUSIA AND ANASTASIS ASSOCIATE. 227 

their midst : that is, by death be so changed as to 
recognize their presence, and participate in their ex- 
perience. And so we all shall be with Jesus our 
Lord. 

The Apostle then does not in 1 Thess. 4 : 13-18 
teach a catastrophe or " end of the world," and a 
general resurrection of the body in connection with 
it. On the other hand, he here as elsewhere teaches 
that the Parousia and the Anastasis are just at hand, 
and are coming as a thief in the night — to the 
sinner a day of destruction, to the saint a day of 
glory. 

As confirmatory of this our interpretation, see in 
a previous Chapter the view expressed of 2 Thess. 
2 : 1-3, which evidently refers to these verses in the 
first epistle. 



CHAPTER V. 



PROPHECY RESTORED. 



Prophecy has furnished a region in which for im- 
agination to range at will : and no part of the pro- 
phetic writings more than the Apocalypse. Not only 
has it as prophecy been made to assume fantastic 
shapes ; portions of it have been surreptitiously tak- 
en from the department of prophecy, and transferred 
to that of doctrine. The language of imagery and 
symbol, it has been construed literally. What we 
propose, in this Chapter, is the work of restoration. 

Eevelation xx-xxii. 

Portions of chap. xx. have been supposed to bear 
upon the doctrine of the Anastasis. The word dvda- 
raoig occurs in v. 5. Other portions (vs. 11-15) are 
supposed to sustain the doctrine of a future distant 
day of General Judgment. The writer supposes that 
in neither instance is there the remotest reference in 
the direction assumed. 

The object of John, in chaps, xii-xxii. of the 

(228) 



SATAN AS A PERSECUTOR. 229 

Apocalypse, was to encourage the Christians of his 
own and the immediately subsequent generations, by 
the assurance that the period of persecution would 
not be long — that Christianity would soon rise into 
the ascendant ; and not only so, but, at a day some- 
what remote indeed, so transform human character 
as to make of our world a new heaven and a new 
earth. 

Satan is considered as a persecutor ; and as such 
symbolized as a dragon. His leading agents are the 
beast and the false prophet — the former representing 
the civil persecuting power ; the latter the sacerdotal 
organization as engaged with the civil in the same 
work. The home and centre of operation is Rome, 
called, in language designedly obscure and unex- 
plained ([iv6Z)jqiov) Babylon, as that was the Old 
Testament power that, more than any other, annoyed 
the church of God. 

The Lamb appears as a conqueror and overcomes 
these enemies. The victory, while it is certain, is 
yet, for a season, delayed. All things seem as if 
ready for a consummation, yet is it delayed — de- 
layed. Thus, there was decree of toleration after 
decree, each followed by a revival of the spirit of 
persecution and the shedding of the blood of the 
martyrs. But at length came a most decisive termi- 
nation. Constantine ascended the throne as a Chris- 
tian emperor. 

20 



230 ESCHATOLOGY. 

Thus far we have followed substantially the exe- 
gesis of Prof. Stuart, with this exception, that he 
makes the delay and the prolongation of the pro- 
cesses of triumph to the church to indicate the pro- 
longed conflict of holiness with sin down to the mil- 
lennium. Stuart fails to regard with sufficient strict- 
ness, though he recognizes the great fact that the 
Dragon represents Satan as a persecutor, and the 
beast and the false prophet the civil and sacerdotal 
agencies of heathendom, as engaged in persecuting' 
the church. Hence the victory which this book pre- 
dicts previous to chap. 20 : 10, is victory over Satan 
as a persecutor. Hence, while the fall of Nero and 
the close of the then existing persecution is referred 
to in chaps, xiv. and xvii, the delay of the final vic- 
tory is designed to indicate the fact that the spirit of 
persecution would live yet longer, and be finally con- 
quered only by the enthronement of Constantine. 
Satan and the beast and the false prophet will then 
have done their work. Heathenism will from that 
time have no power to persecute the church. Prof. 
Stuart loses sight of the persecuting character of the 
actors against Christianity, and hence makes the de- 
lay refer to the yet future victory of the church over 
irreligion. This victory is indicated in chap. 20 : 10 
seq. Satan as a persecutor is bound chap. 20 : 1-3. 
The friends of Christianity then pass into the as- 
cendant. 






END OF PERSECUTION. 231 

Chap. 20 : 1-7, has a necessary and most intimate 
logical connection with what immediately precedes. 
The beast and the false prophet and their empire 
were destroyed, chap. 19: 19-21. But they were 
only the agents of " the Dragon, that old serpent," 
in other words, of Satan as a persecutor. And the 
victory could not be considered as achieved till he 
is overcome. Accordingly, a mighty angel comes 
down from heaven, having the key of the bottom- 
less pit and a great chain in his hand. He lays hold 
of, binds, and casts into the bottomless pit this great 
enemy of the church, and not only turns the key 
upon him, but puts a seal upon the fastening, so 
that he shall by no means go forth till permitted. 

This confinement of Satan as a persecutor was to 
last " a thousand years " — a round and large num- 
ber to denote an indefinitely long period. 

Verses 4-7. This is a description of the church 
during "the thousand years." In v. 2 the article is 
wanting before yjha hij, but in vs. 4, 5, it is found ; 
showing that there is a reference to the thousand 
years first named. 

" Judgment was given to the saints." Not until 
now was the prediction of Daniel (7 : 22) com- 
pletely fulfilled. But now the civil power was in 
the hands of Christians, and it has continued so to 
the present day. Never since Constantine ascended 
the throne has Paganism had it in its power to per- 



232 ESCHATOLOGY. 

secute the church; nor has the church been perse- 
cuted, save as some portions of the church itself 
have sometimes persecuted other portions. The 
prophet in vision saw the "souls" (tag ipv%dg) of 
those who had been faithful during the period of 
persecution, that is, good men, living and governing 
the world, and governing it " with Christ," and in 
the spirit of his religion. This can only mean that 
men of their spirit and character were in the as- 
cendant. The rest of the dead — the wicked men 
who had figured hitherto as the tools of the dragon — 
" lived not " * during this thousand years. This 
happy and privileged state of the world, when men 
lived under Christian governments, and amid the 
influences of Christian religious institutions, was 
a sort of earnest of heaven — a first anastasis. 
Blessed and holy men gave character to this period. 
Isaiah (61 : 6, 7) had predicted " Ye shall be named 
the Priests of the Lord : men shall call you the 
ministers of our God : ye shall eat the riches of the 
Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast your- 
selves. For your shame ye shall have double ; and 
for confusion they (you) shall rejoice in their por- 
tion." This we understand to be descriptive of the 



* Ova e&aav. " Again/' as in our translation, is not implied in the 
Greek. It was added as in keeping with the idea entertained of the 
anastasis spoken of in this verse. 



GOG AND MAGOG. 233 

church as it has been from the days of Constantine 
to the present time, and as it will be for a period, of 
length unknown to us, in the future. We are of 
opinion, however, that the time is not distant when 
a change shall come over the church and the world, 
such as is described in the succeeding portions of 
this chapter. 

After this period of the triumphs of religion, Per- 
secution will have a brief space given her. Satan 
will again act in his old capacity as persecutor of 
the church of God. But the attempt will be vain 
and his overthrow complete and final. 

This is just what we should expect from the na- 
ture of the human mind and of human depravity. 
When the church shall become more holy, and her 
moral power increase in proportion — a power, much 
of which is yet in waiting to be developed and em- 
ployed, it will provoke opposition ; it will arouse the 
spirit of deep depravity in man, and the result will 
be a decided stand for opposition and for positive 
aggression. 

Verses 8-10. The allusion to Gog and Magog 
will be understood by a reference to the prophet 
Ezekiel, chap, xxxix. When that Prophet would 
predict the triumphs of religion in our world, he em- 
ploys a scene laid in the Holy Land, and with the 
holy People in the exercise of their religion with its 

20* 



234 ESCHATOLOGY. 

forms and ceremonies, as actors. David their Prince 
is to be their king. But as a means of their own 
higher sanctification, and, at the same time, of bring- 
ing to an acquaintance with the true God and the 
true religion the Gentiles, the Jews are to experi- 
ence an invasion from the north and a very distant 
and barbarous country. Gog and Magog, with a 
mighty host, are poured upon the land of Palestine. 
But they are signally defeated and utterly destroyed. 
Now for the effect. " I will set my glory among the 
heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment 
that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid 
upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I 
am the Lord their God, from that day and forward." 
Ezek. 39 : 21, 22. See also vs. 23-29. The Prophet 
in this refers to the very time of which John is 
speaking. Hence when John would represent the 
attack of the irreligious and infidel portion of the 
world upon the church at the time referred to, he 
employs the name of these barbarous nations. The 
moral significance of the allusion is, that 1he assail- 
ants of the church will be those at the greatest 
moral distance from it. 

Verses 11-15. This has been supposed by most 
interpreters to refer to a day of General Judgment at 
" the end of the world." But why insist on taking 
the language of this book of the boldest poetic im- 



EPOCH OF HOLINESS. 235 

agery literally ? We have seen the Apostle in the pre- 
ceding verses alluding to the imagery of Ezekiel. 
Here we find him referring to the language of Dan- 
iel. Let the reader turn to the seventh chapter of 
that prophet, so fruitful in suggestions to the writers 
of the New Testament, and he will find almost the 
very words here used ; especially in vs. 9-14. In 
this chapter, Daniel is considering the great civil 
powers that had figured largely in the history of the 
world, and especially that had been important in 
their influence upon the condition of the holy Peo- 
ple. He predicts their overthrow, and that they are 
to retire from the theatre of the world's affairs ; and 
that then, the Messiah's kingdom is to be introduced 
to the world. How does he do it? The Eternal 
descends with thousand thousand ministering attend- 
ants. He is seated upon a throne. The court is 
organized. The books are opened. The decision of 
this august tribunal is forthcoming, and at once exe- 
cuted. These enemies of the church are destroyed. 
Then comes the Son of Man and receives his king- 
dom. 

In the scene before us, the Messiah's ldngdom, 
which, in the vision of Daniel was to be introduced 
to the world, is to be borne upward to its state of 
consummated earthly glory. The time is now to be 
introduced when all shall know the Lord from the 



236 ESCHATOLOGY. 

least even unto the greatest. Henceforth all the 
children of earth are to be saved. The prayer which 
the Saviour has taught his church to offer, and which 
she has offered in every succeeding age — " Thy king- 
dom come ; thy will be done in earth as it is in 
heaven " — is to be answered. Death and hell have 
done their work so far as earth's future sons are con- 
cerned. The new heaven and new earth that Isaiah 
had predicted, w^ere now to become reality. 

The great fact indicated in vs. 11-15 is that the 
wicked have noiv done their work. " In the wisdom 
of God," the world had been, up to this time, the 
theatre of an amount of sin and suffering fearfully 
great ; growing less and less, however, as this time 
drew near, and Christianity was accomplishing its 
work. But now the time has come when wicked 
men are no longer to be actors in this sublime drama. 
They are therefore represented as assembled to set- 
tle up their accounts with God. And with them, 
also, are those who have been actors with them, 
though not of their character. The world of the 
past, of mixed history, of saints and sinners, is 
assembled, and " stands before God." " The books," 
the one containing the history of the good, and the 
other that of the evil, are opened, and men are ad- 
judged every one according to his works. The bad 
are separated from the good, and cast into the lake 



IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 237 

of fire. Death and Hades — their work done* — 
are also cast into the lake of fire. The good alone 
remain. Of earth's history, as inhabited by the 
blessed subjects of the kingdom of the Redeemer, 
we learn in the following chapter. 

Chap. xxi. A new scene now opens — the con- 
summated state of the Messiah's kingdom in this 
world, vs. 1-9. There is a new heaven and a new 
earth ; and in this new earth there is no more sea. 
The human race are now all brought together, 
and dwell together, as a peaceful and loving fam- 
ily. 

As further to illustrate the great idea that pos- 
sessed his mind, and was more completely to be 
introduced to it, he sees the new Jerusalem coming 
down from God out of heaven, vs. 2-4. This refers 
to the vision of Ezekiel (Ezek. 40 : 2 seq.). He saw 
a city, and in it a magnificent Temple, and it was 
the centre of a religious service conducted in the 
manner of the Mosaic Institute. This was true, 



* Hades is the term by which the Seventy translate the Sheol of the 
Old Testament. The word signifies " something dreadful, dark, and 
silent, about which the most prying eye, and listening ear, can acquire 
no information" (Campbell, Dis. VI.), and corresponds to the concep- 
tions of the men of that day, of the world beyond the grave (adrjc, 
from a privative, and eldu to see). The life beyond the grave, is no 
longer to be such a region of darkness. It is to be a world of posi- 
tiveness, and light, and joy. So death is to be no longer death, but a 
transition painless, welcome, waited for. 



238 ESCHATOLOGY. 

almost without exception, of the visions of the 
ancient prophets that enter at all into detail. The 
only conception, to a Jew, of eminent religious pros- 
perity, was under the forms of his own ceremonial. 
Hence Isaiah, in the sublime conceptions of chap. 
lx. makes all nations indeed religious, but they come 
up to Jerusalem and to the Temple, and lay upon 
the altar the flocks of Kedar and the rams of 
Nebaioth. John's readers did not need this imagery, 
and accordingly he says, " I saw no temple therein." 
And he dispenses entirely with allusion to the Jewish 
ritual. 

He alludes to the tabernacle of the congregation 
in the wilderness. God had said to the children of 
Israel, " I will set my tabernacle among you, and 
my soul shall not abhor you, and I will walk among 
you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my peo- 
ple " (Lev. 26 : 11, 12). And accordingly, God was 
with them. The pillar of cloud and of fire was 
ever their guide and their protection. When they 
were to change their place, the cloudy pillar moved, 
and in the direction in which they should go ; when 
they were to stop, then the cloud was stationary. 
In the time of danger, the cloud came in between 
them and their enemies, and kept harm away from 
them. In allusion to this miraculous interposition 
for the good of the chosen people, the prophet Isaiah, 
in representing the privileges of the people of God 






IN EAKTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 239 

under the reign of the Messiah, says (4 : 5, 6), " And 
the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of 
mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and 
smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by 
night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. 
And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the 
daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, 
and for a covert from storm and from rain." So in 
our text (vs. 3, 4) : " The tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be 
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and 
be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain : for the former things are passed away." 
When it is said, " there shall be no more death," we 
are not to infer that men will not then, as now, pass 
from the animal to the spiritual body ; but it will 
not be death, it will be a translation. The " sting 
of death " will be gone, and the ." change " (1 Cor. 
15 : 52) will be a welcome event. The sphere of 
faith will be as actual and as influential in the con- 
victions of men, as is now the sphere of sight. 
And the appearing {naQovoia) of the Lord will be the 
great and inviting fact involved in the event. 

And finally, the great facts before the Apostle and 
the church are represented in a word : " Behold, I 
make all things new." This is the mission of the 



240 ESCHATOLOGY* 

I 

Messiah. How much is implied in this language, 
at present " hath not entered into the heart of man." 
The direct effects of the system of moral influence 
embraced in Christianity upon the personal charac- 
ter of man will be great. Paul, in all the richness 
of his spirit, and the simplicity and vigor of his faith, 
will not then stand, as now, so nearly alone. But 
multitudes, perhaps all, will be followers of him, 
even as he was of Christ. And then the indirect 
results, — the development of the intellectual char- 
acter of man, and, as a consequence, the knowledge 
of the sciences, and the application of them to the 
arts, thus modifying his external condition, making of 
our world, considered as the abode of man, a new 
earth indeed. How much has Christianity done 
already in this direction ! What is in the future ? 
"Who can tell ? 

The informing angel now told the Apostle that the 
series of future events as to be represented in this 
prophetic vision was completed. " It is done." He 
had led the Revelator through the period of persecu- 
tion, presenting events in much detail. He had then 
represented a much longer period of comparative 
prosperity to the church, and in which Satan as a 
persecutor would have no power. The friends of 
Christianity would rule the world so far forth that 
no power could persecute the church. Then amidst 
the sublime imagery of a present Deity on the throne 



IN EAKTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 241 

of judgment, was represented the closing up of the 
career of wicked men on the earth, and their hopeless 
doom. And finally, the state of a triumphant and a 
consummated Christianity in the hearts and con- 
dition of men. 

And now a word of practical application of the 
vision (vs. 6-8), to the persons to whom the Apostle 
would send this his message — having especial refer- 
ence to those who in the times of persecution would 
find obedience and duty so difficult : " I am Alpha 
and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give 
unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water 
of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all 
things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my 
son." That is, grace in the largest measure and 
utmost freeness shall be given to all who seek it, and 
they shall be sustained and made more than con- 
querors, and heaven at last be theirs. The unfaith- 
ful, too, have an admonition. They have seen what 
is the doom of the wicked, and how hopeless of suc- 
cess. They must be crushed, and cast out into the 
lake of fire with the beast and the false prophet. Let 
all then beware. 

The remaining portion of this book (21 : 9 seq.) 
seems as a sort of Appendix or Addenda. The 
series of events had been completed. But the new 
Jerusalem, which he had seen coming down from 
God out of heaven, must be presented with more of 

21 



242 ESCHATOLOGY. 

detail. God would have the church, in future time, 
find in it a stronger appeal to its hopes, and the 
means of a more adequate conviction of what the 
religion of the gospel is, what its power and efficacy, 
and with what expectation, therefore, it should be 
used by the church upon the world. 

Ezekiel (chap. xl. seq.) in predicting the precise 
thing that was the burden of this part of the Apoc- 
alypse, is shown a City and Temple, as we have 
said. This city and temple are described with great 
minuteness. Every thing proceeds on the principles 
of the Mosaic Ritual. And he closes his description 
by saying, " And the name of the city from that day 
shall be, Jehovah is there." 

So here a magnificent city, of surpassing richness 
and glory is shown to the Apostle. The splendor of 
this city is immeasurably in advance of that of Eze- 
kiel. In v. 16, " The length and the breadth and the 
height of it are equal " — ha, which may be rendered 
here proportional " And I saw no temple therein " 
(v. 22). This indicates the spirituality and wide re- 
move from ceremony, of the worship of this happy 
period. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are 
the temple of it. ( See Heb. 8 : 2.) God and Christ 
are recognized as everywhere present, and in commun- 
ion direct with every heart. The language of v. 23 
is borrowed from Isaiah (24: 23. 60: 19, 20). In v. 
24 the words " of them which are saved " are want- 



IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 243 

ing in the best manuscripts. Dr. Knapp omits them 
in his Greek Testament. They were probably added 
by some one who considered the vision as descriptive 
of heaven, and thought it necessary to guard against 
the doctrine of universal salvation. When it is read, 
" The nations shall walk in the light of it : and the 
kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into 
it," it becomes significant of precisely the meaning 
that our interpretation would require. The church 
in its glory embraces all nations and kings. There 
shall be none whose names are not written in the 
Lamb's book of life. 

Ezekiel saw issuing from the eastern side of the 
temple, a stream of water, which went off eastward 
through the valley of Jehoshaphat, increasing as it 
went, until it poured its waters into the Dead Sea ; — 
the waters of which were healed. John sees a river 
of water of life clear as crystal, flowing out from un- 
der the throne of God and the Lamb. On its banks 
is the tree of life, bearing each month, and thus fur- 
nishing a constant supply of that fruit which is for 
the healing of the nations. The allusion is to the 
garden of Eden, and to that tree of which if a man 
eat, even after he has fallen under the curse of sin, 
he shall live forever (Gen. 3 : 22). Adam was for- 
bidden access to this tree. But now " ihe nations " 
have access to it, and- eat and live forever. And 
hence " there shall be no more curse." And then, 



244 ESCHATOLOGY. 

hew spiritual shall be that life. " The throne of God 
and of the Lamb shall be in it." God in his wise 
and benevolent government, and Christ in all the ful- 
ness and freeness of his grace, shall be recognized as 
present ; and all, as his willing, privileged, joyous ser- 
vants, shall serve him. And finally, these holy and 
competent men, so under God's immediate direction, 
shall govern and control the world, henceforth and 
forever. " They shall reign forever and ever." 

That chapters xx-xxii. do not refer to the future 
world is obvious from many considerations. 

1. Much of the language, indeed nearly all that is 
cardinal to the question, is borrowed from the Old 
Testament, where it is used, not with reference to the 
future, but to the present world : and to indicate the 
very facts, to which we have now applied it. 

2. The connection of the thought — the continu- 
ity of a series of events — requires our hypothesis. 
The interpretation we have now given, carries us 
down in an uninterrupted series of events, from the 
time of the Apostle to the consummated condition of 
the Messiah's kingdom. 

3. We should expect a longer period than one 
thousand years of the happy and triumphant reign 
of Christ, after so long a struggle in introducing that 
state — forbidding us, therefore, to apply chap. 20 : 
2-5 to that reign. Already, nearly six thousand 
years have transpired in which the work of redemp- 



IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 245 

tion has been plied with all the wisdom, and love, 
and power of the great Actor : and we cannot doubt 
that quite a period of time must elapse before 
the day of consummation shall be ushered in; — 
though we hope and believe the time is comparative- 
ly near. Now, we should expect, after so much has 
been expended in the preparation, that a period of 
consummated and holy fruition of great length 
would succeed — a period so long, that the introduc- 
tory period of conflict and preparation would be as 
nothing, and be lost in the comparison. What, then, 
is a millennium of one thousand years, after six thou- 
sand years of sin and death ? The creation of the 
world and of our race, on that hypothesis, were a 
failure. More of earth's sons would be lost than 
saved. The benevolence of God could not be vin- 
dicated. It were better that the world had never 
been made. Blessed be God, it will not be so. The 
day shall come in earth's history, when the number 
of the lost shall be, in comparison with the happy 
multitude which no man can number, that shall have 
gone up to heaven, a mere infinitesimal. " He hath 
put all things under his feet." 1 Cor. 15 : 24-28. 

4. The scene of the new Jerusalem is laid on 
earth. It comes down from God out of heaven, and 
to earth. Men are not represented as taken up to 
God, but the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
dwells with them. The " nations " walk in the light 

21* 



246 ESCHATOLOGY. 

of the holy city, and bring their glory and honor into 
it. But on the common hypothesis, " nations " 
would be among the things that were. 

5. The attempt to represent heaven by the image- 
ry of a city and materials of earthly splendor, would 
be, to a truly spiritual mind, to let down the subject. 
The Bible nowhere — and for the best of reasons — 
makes any attempt to describe heaven. It makes an 
allusion to the degree of its blessedness, by accumu- 
lating hyperbole upon hyperbole. It is a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. An extended 
attempt at a description or illustration of heaven, is 
quite aside from all the analogy of the Bible. 

We are happy to refer the reader to such high au- 
thority as Dr. Watts, in support of our opinion that 
the new Jerusalem is to be on earth. The following 
beautiful hymn assumes our exegesis in this particu- 
lar. 

"Lo, what a glorious sight appears, 
To our believing eyes ! 
The earth and seas are passed away, 
And the old rolling skies. 

From the third heaven, where God resides, 

That holy, happy place, 
The new Jerusalem comes down, 

Adorned with shining grace. 

Attending angels shout for joy, 

And the bright armies sing, 
'Mortals, behold the sacred seat 

Of your descending King. 



IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 247 

The God of glory down to men 

Removes his blessed abode ; 
Men, the dear objects of his grace, 

And he the loving God. 

His own soft hand shall wipe the tears 

From every weeping eye ; 
And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears, 

And death itself shall die.' 

How long, dear Saviour, O how long 

Shall this bright hour delay ? 
Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time, 

And bring the welcome day/' 

The following is from Prof. Tholuck. " The idea 
that the perfected kingdom of Christ is to be trans- 
ferred to heaven, is properly a modern notion. Ac- 
cording to Paul and the Revelation of John, the 
kingdom of God is placed upon the earth, in so far 
as this itself has part in the universal transformation. 
This exposition has been adopted and defended by 
most of the oldest commentators ; e. g. Chrysostom, 
Theodoret, Hieronymus, Augustine, Luther, Koppe, 
and others. Luther says, in his lively way, ' God 
will make, not the earth only, but the heavens also, 
much more beautiful than they are at present. At 
present, we see the world in its working clothes ; but 
hereafter it will be arrayed in its Easter and Whit- 
suntide robes.' " 

Tholuck, and the authors he names, believed in a 



248 ESCHATOLOGY. 

physical change or catastrophe of the globe, and that 
the new Jerusalem is to be on this literally new earth. 
We suppose this to be the opinion of Dr. Watts. 
Let the idea of these men be so far modified as to 
recognize this as the language of bold imagery, and 
indicative of the great change that is to come over 
the character of men, and, as a consequence, over 
the material world and its uses and relations to men, 
as affected by intelligence and science, and their 
theory becomes ours. Is the literal or the analogical 
most in keeping with the hermeneutics of the pres- 
ent day ? Can there be but one answer ? 

Chap. 22: 14, 15. By the "tree of life" and "the 
city " are here meant heaven, as in 2:7 and 3 : 12. 
This does not militate against the explanation given 
of 20 : 11 — 22 : 5, as referring to an earthly state. 
The very design of this scene is to convey the idea 
that heaven will eome down to earth. In v. 17, the 
allusion to the water of life as spoken of in v. 1 con- 
templates it as on earth, and accessible to any who 
thirst for it. Then again in v. 19, "the tree (not 
book, see Knapp, Nov. Test.) of life and the holy 
city" are considered as the reward of the good, 
therefore heavenly, as in 2 : 7, and 3 : 12. 

We have been thus particular in the consideration 
of the Apocalypse that our interpretation of what is 
said of the " first anastasis " in 20 : 4, 5, and also of 



IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 249 

the judgment scene in vs. 11-15, may be seen " in 
place." As now interpreted, this language is not 
that of didactic theology, and of prose statement. 
Its connections forbid us so to regard it. It is the 
language of prophecy, and, as such, of bold imagery. 
But, this admitted, and it is ours. The Apostle 
would represent a portion of the race as elevated by 
Christianity to a higher life. He calls it a first anas- 
tasis — an elevation half way to heaven. How true 
to fact! The church even of the present day, as 
compared with heathendom, is in that relative posi- 
tion. Rev. 20 : 4, 5, becomes then a proof text of the 
strongest import in support of the views now advo- 
cated of the Anastasis. 

We think, and we hope our readers will see, that 
our interpretation of the Apocalypse not only gives 
to these particular passages an import in harmony 
with similar language elsewhere, and a place in a 
system of truth that renders that system by their aid 
the more symmetrical ; but that it makes the Apoc- 
alypse itself as a prophecy, consistent, and of easy 
and natural application. Truth is everywhere con- 
sistent with truth. And as the Bible is truth, when 
it shall be rightly understood, it will be in all its parts 
harmonious, and, as a whole, symmetrical, and beau- 
tiful to the beholder. 



CHAPTER VI. 



CONCLUSION. 



To what results have we been brought by the pre- 
ceding examination of the Holy Word ? We answer 
in the following 

SUMMAEY. 

If the preceding exegesis be correct, then it is true 
that " The Coming of the Son of Man " is not to be 
confounded with " The Coming of the Lord." The 
former refers to his coming " as a man " to introduce 
and take upon himself the administration of the "king- 
dom of God " — the Christian Dispensation. When 
that work was entirely accomplished, he was no 
longer the " Son of Man." Henceforth he was " the 
Son of God in power." 

The phrase, " The Coming of the Lord," as used 
by the Apostles, refers to a period in the history of 
Christians, and of each Christian in particular, when 
A cluster OF MOMENTOUS FACTS shall simultaneously 

(250) 



SUMMARY. 251 

occur. The feeble faith and earthly estimates of the 
Christians of our day fix upon death, considered as 
the termination of the animal life, and of the present 
social and earthly relations, as the great fact. The 
clear-visioned faith and spirituality of the Apostles 
and inspired writers saw chiefly, and almost only, 
in this cluster, the Parousia — the fact that then 
there would come over them such a change in the 
mode of their being, as to render them like the glori- 
fied Jesus, like saints, like angels : so that henceforth 
Jesus and saints and angels would be to them 
" present " in the same sense that men in this fife 
are, when together, present to each other. To them, 
the death of the body was only as the throwing 
down of the scaffolding, that the building might ap- 
pear, and be in fact ready for occupancy. 

We have further come to the conclusion, that the 
Judgment is contemporaneous with the Coming of 
the Lord — that the word Judgment as used in the 
Scriptures, is nearly equivalent to the modern word 
government in all its functions : and that judgment 
was given to the Messiah when the government was 
placed upon his shoulders. So that he has judged 
men — given them not only law but award, ever 
since he was constituted " the Son of God in power," 
or, in his own words (Matt. 16 : 27), "rewarded every 
man according to his works." 

And we have found that the Resurrection — the 



252 ESCHATOLOGY. 

development and commencing exercise of the spir- 
itual body, is one of these facts. The " change " by 
which the mortal gives place to immortality is " in a 
moment." 

And finally, the Anastasis, by which is meant a 
Future Life, dates in all its completeness from this 
epoch. 

We have found in the Bible no " Intermediate 
State" — that state which is neither probationary, 
punitive, jior remunerative, and has therefore no 
place in the moral administration of God. 

We have not found the Bible teaching an " End 
of the World." An end of the then present alcov 
(dispensation) it does indeed teach, but no end of 
the xo6{iog (world) 

It will be noticed, that in the view we advocate, 
we consider the future history of man — of each 
man in particular, and of all men — to be in accord- 
ance with established laws of nature. As he comes 
into being and develops his powers up to the time 
of his death, under such laws, so, we think, his 
course will, from that time onward, be natural. 
Death, what we know of it, is natural. Why not 
suppose that the next step in the order of change — 
in the process of the being — will be also natural ; 
and the next ; and so on forever. Why not suppose 
that the mode and circumstances of introduction to 



MIRACLES CUI BONO? 253 

the future world and of progress in it are all natural, 
as are those of introduction to and progress in this 
world ? 

As distinguished from this, the common theory 
implies a constant succession of miracles. The 
theory that makes the body that shall be raised, 
identical with the present body, implies miracles 
without number. We would not deny the possi- 
bility to God, of preserving the precise particles of 
which the bodies of all men severally as they die 
are composed. God could so arrange it, that at the 
time in which each man died, there should not be 
one gaseous particle, that was in the body of any 
other man when he died ; and this through all time. 
At any rate, we cannot prove the contrary. But we 
think no one will deny that it implies a continued 
series of miracles. The scenes of the last day, as 
implied in the common theory, are of course miracu- 
lous. 

But, cni bono ? What good is to be accomplished 
by such miracles ? Miracles have ever, so far as we 
know, been wrought to impress the minds of men 
with the power and goodness of God, or to sustain 
a claim to a divine mission or communication. No 
such object can be contemplated in all the miracu- 
lous wonders of the common theory of " the end of 
the world," the Judgment, and the Resurrection. At 
the time when all this series of miracles from the 

22 



254 ESCHATOLOGY. 

creation of the world to its end, and so multitudi- 
nous, shall appear as such to men ; and when all the 
sublime wonders of a burning world, and falling 
stars, and rushing heavens, and archangel's voice, and 
trump of God, shall be enacted ; it will be too late 
to accomplish any good upon men. The wicked will 
be lost past recovery, and the good will be beyond 
the need of miracles such as these, or any other. 
Indeed, the more intelligent portion of the Christian 
world are so now. Were all these " wonders " to 
pass before my eye to-day, it would not enhance my 
conviction of the greatness and goodness of God one 
jot or tittle. It is the moral manifestations that have 
been already made in the glorious, precious facts of 
the redemption which there is in Christ Jesus, and 
which are now being made in the processes of that 
redemptive work, that captivate the heart. These 
furnish a glory to my heart that must eclipse all pos- 
sible physical manifestations. Let all the scenes that 
are so eloquently described in President Dwight's 
sermon on The Judgment, pass actually before me, 
and it were, as a manifestation of the heart of God, 
tame and unmeaning, in comparison with the mild 
but glorious manifestations of Redemption. The 
susceptibilities to which these last make their ap- 
peal, are immeasurably above, and, as affected, more 
controlling than those addressed by physical sub- 
limity. And, moreover, the facts of the Judgment 



ORTHODOXY. 255 

will be such as to render the mind indifferent to all 
this drapery — both in the good and in the bad. 
Heaven and hell will then be impressive realities, in 
comparison with which any physical phenomena 
that can be furnished by this material world, will be 
of little interest. " And I saw a great white throne, 
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and 
the heaven fled away? God alone, and our relations 
direct to him, will be thought of in the day of final 
Judgment, and not any phenomena of "the earth 
and the heaven." 

ORTHODOXY. 

"We attach great importance to a sound reputation 
for sound orthodoxy. But what is sound ortho- 
doxy ? Not exclusively the "form of sound words " 
— so reputed. On the subject of the Resurrection, 
we think it will be difficult to determine what ortho- 
doxy is. 

The Synod of Dort (1618, 1619) gives us the fol- 
lowing as the views of the Reformed Churches : — 
" Finally, we believe, according to the Word of God, 
when the time appointed by the Lord (which is un- 
known to all creatures), is come, and the number of 
the elect complete, that our Lord Jesus Christ will 
come from heaven, corporeally and visibly, to declare 
himself Judge of the quick and the dead; burning 



256 ESCHATOLOGY. 

this old world with fire and flame to cleanse it. And 
then all will personally appear before this great 
Judge, both men, and women, and children, that 
have been from the beginning of the world to the 
end thereof, being summoned by the voice of the 
archangel and by the sound of the trumpet of God. 
For all the dead shall be raised out of the earth, and 
their souls joined and united with their proper bodies, 
in which they formerly lived. As for those who shall 
be then living, they shall not die as the others, but 
be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and from 
corruptible become incorruptible." ~ Conf. of Faith, 
Art. 37. 

The following is from the "Westminster Cate- 
chism : " The self-same bodies of the dead which 
"were laid in the grave, being then again united to 
their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power 
of Christ." Q. 87. The following from the Con- 
fession of Faith : " All the dead shall be raised up 
with the self-same bodies, and none other." Chap. 
32. 

The English Church, in Art. 4, says : " Christ did 
truly rise again from death, and took again his, body, 
with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the 
perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended 
into heaven, and there sitteth, until he return to judge 
all men at the last day." 

Prof. Shepard, of the Theological Seminary, Ban- 



ORTHODOXY. 257 

gor, uses the following language : " Said he to his 
disciples, a little before his ascension, ' Behold my 
hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me 
and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye 
see me have.' And, with the same body, he ivent up 
into heaven" — National Preacher, Jan. 1858. 

But Mr. Spear, as the reviewer of Prof. Bush 
(Bib. Repository, 1845, pp. 261, 262), has the follow- 
ing : " Again, is the identity one that consists in the 
same number of material particles in the two bodies, 
or in the presence of some, or all of the very same 
particles in the two bodies ? The Scriptures do not 
decide this question ; and an answer, that should 
possess any certainty, is plainly beyond the reach of 
philosophical inquiry. Some have supposed that the 
resurrection-body will be constructed of the identical 
atoms composing the body that dies ; while others 
think that not all of these atoms will be in the fu- 
ture body, but some of them, sufficient to constitute 
an identity. Not knowing what is true, we shall 
not venture to affirm. In order, however, not to 
dodge a question just when it may be supposed to 
press us most severely, we will give the author the 
privilege of making any supposition that suits him 
best. He may put all of the atoms into the resur- 
rection-body, or some of them, or he may leave them 
all out. . . . Give me an identity between the pres- 
ent and future body for the residence of the soul, as 

22* 



258 ESCHATOLOGY. 

complete, substantial, and real, as that of my present 
body during successive periods, and I ask no more. 
And if in the latter case I may have it with an en- 
tire change of elementary particles, why may I not 
equally have it in the former ? " 

What now is orthodoxy on the subject of the Res- 
urrection ? We doubt if, at the present day, there 
can be found many who will subscribe to the grosser 
theory. Few will claim more than is claimed by 
Mr. Spear, who, in the name of orthodoxy, is calling 
Prof. Bush to account for non-orthodoxy. What, 
then, is the criterion by which to try opinions on 
this subject ? 

We shall perhaps be pardoned, if, in this connec- 
tion, we say, in plea of a charitable estimate of our 
humble volume, that this is a day, unlike any other, 
of independent thinking. The community are edu- 
cated as never before, and trained to habits of read- 
ing and study. The literature of the day is addressed, 
as was not that of a former period, to the reasoning 
faculty. Our civil functions, even, encourage every 
man, as sharing in the responsibilities of his nation's 
governmental administration, to think for himself. 
Authority no longer forms the creeds of men, politi- 
cal or religious. The Past does it not. We must 
see for ourselves. So it should be. And we have 
derived erroneous inferences from facts that have 
fallen under our observation, if there are not many 



ORTHODOXY. 259 

readers of the Bible, who are pursuing an original 
investigation, and forming their own independent 
creeds. We have found the man of gray hairs in 
this attitude, and those of younger years in such 
numbers, as to justify, we think, the inference that 
the Spirit of God is, by an all-pervading influence, 
leading the lovers of truth right to the fountain. 

If this be so, then, while we may expect a general 
agreement, we shall have, of course, in greater num- 
ber than before, specific differences. And our charity 
must adjust itself into harmony with its obligations 
in the premises. Men must and will think for them- 
selves. And the cry of heresy will not deter those 
who are of the day from this duty and privilege. Far 
from it. On the other hand, it will have the effect to 
drive those, whom the church and orthodoxy most 
need, into relations other than those of the most ef- 
fective auxiliary ship. Unity with variety is the order 
of things in nature. And if, in the sphere of theo- 
logical opinions and functions, that variety is a little 
in excess, and includes some error, that excess is a 
less evil than the want of unity. There are good 
men in our day, who would be made better by culti- 
vating a more familiar acquaintance with the four- 
teenth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. 
The divinely authorized standard of orthodoxy is, — 
"For God hath received him." 

There are topics on which the public mind is in an 



260 ESCHATOLOGY. 

especial state of unrest. The subject of this volume 
belongs to this class. The formularies, above quoted, 
do not satisfy the common mind of the church. And 
it is asking for light. The doctrine of Inspiration 
needs to be examined. And as bearing, not only on 
the subjects discussed in these pages, but on others, 
and some of them the most momentous of our holy 
Religion, the question of what is and what is not trop- 
ical language, needs a thorough investigation. On 
this subject, we think the language of Robinson may 
be applied with special emphasis : " The Lord has 
more truth yet to break forth out of his holy "Word." 
The attitude in which for the church to be found, 
then, is that of incitement to investigation, and of 
willingness to receive more light. And let her toler- 
ance and her encouragement be extended to the 
humblest of her sons, who would hope to shed, if 
but one and the feeblest ray of light upon what are 
yet regions of comparative darkness and obscurity. 

In respect to the several subjects discussed in the 
preceding pages, the facts are essentially the same 
with the " most straightest " orthodoxy, in all save 
the time when. We are anastasized by being put in 
possession and use of a spiritual body; and that 
body is a structure from the present body, and is 
brought out by eliminating the grosser material of 
the " flesh and blood," and " corruption," and 
" weakness " of the present. In this all agree. The 



ORTHODOXY. 261 

difference is, that the present theory makes men to 
be anastasized txaoxog Iv xqj idim rdypazi, each one in 
Ms own order or rank, while the other does not. The 
common theory dispenses with ranks, and makes all 
rise at the same time. "We make the process of 
anastasizing a natural process, by which men, by a 
law of nature (rep rov tizov loyoi, 2 Peter 3:5), pass 
from the animal to the spiritual body — investing 
with logic and propriety the argument of the Apostle, 
1 Cor. 15 : 12-18 ; while the common theory makes 
the anastasis a miracle, and makes it occur at " the 
end of the world." The essential facts are the same ; 
the time and some of the circumstances of their oc- 
currence are different. 

So of the judgment. Both theories alike make 
Christ the Judge ; the matter of account, the deeds 
done in the body ; and the decision irrevocable ; and 
both alike refer to Matt, xxv, and especially to vs. 
31-46, as directly and unequivocally authoritative on 
the point. And both admit — it is at least the gen- 
eral impression — that heaven and hell do in some 
sort have their commencement in immediate sequence 
to death. The difference between the two theories 
is this : we make men die, and after that the Judg- 
ment. Jesus is upon the throne of his government, 
and adjudicates upon men as they severally appear 
before him — or as he " appears " to them. They 
are then judged, and the joy and the woe that sue- 



262 ESCHATOLOGY. 

ceed, are in execution of the judgment of this " great 
day." We suppose that the rich man, who u in hell 
lifted up his eyes being in torment," had been judged 
and doomed to that experience. So of the angels, 
who " in chains of darkness and suffering the pains 
of hell are given over, confined, to punishment " (2 
Pet. 2:4). So of the wicked, who are " confined 
under inflictions, for a day of punishment " (2 Pet. 
2: 9). The common theory makes these guilty 
beings punished before they are tried and con- 
demned ; and assumes that they are to suffer on in 
this way till the " end of the world," and then are to 
be brought to trial, and doomed. So of the right- 
eous ; they are in Paradise, and in the fulness of 
their joy they sing, Worthy is the Lamb that was 
slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood. 
So of the holy angels, who in heaven do always 
behold the face of the Father. They are, at the 
" end of the world," to be brought to trial, and re- 
ceive a legal title to that, the fruition of which has 
so long been theirs informally. 

With reference to the Coming or Appearing of 
the Lord, it is a question of time, and also of cir- 
cumstance. Our theory is, that the Lord " comes " 
to men at death (so Prof. Stuart interprets John 14 : 
3. See Bib. Sacra, 1852, p. 343), and that the ap- 
pearance or manifestation is accomplished by the 
natural change that then passes upon them, in re- 



ORTHODOXY. 263 

spect to the mode of their existence. So that the 
appearing is post mortem. The common theory is, 
that by a miracle, there is to be a physical manifes- 
tation by the coming of the Lord in the clouds. 
Whether it is to be in a human form, or some other, 
we know not.* And whether the angels are to be 
in human form, we know not. And whether there 
is to be a literal trump, we know not. f From all 
we can gather from authors on this subject, we sup- 
pose the theory is, that the resurrection will precede 
the appearing of the Lord ; and that bodies, as at 
present constituted, are to be revivified, so that, with 
these same eyes of the bodily sense, the " appearing," 
whatever it is, will be seen. Then the change from 
the natural to the spiritual body will take place in 
the air, after they are caught up. Landis makes the 
body to be raised a spiritual body, and then to be 
again changed, and fashioned like unto Christ's 



* The Synod of Dort says, " Our Lord Jesus Christ will come from 
heaven, corporeally and visibly." 

t " The Jews supposed that the dead would be awakened by the 
sound of a trumpet. Traces of this opinion are to be found in the Chal- 
daic paraphrasts. At first this representation belonged only to the 
figurative phraseology of prophecy; for the people were commonly 
assembled by the sound of the trumpet, as was the case in the assem- 
bling at Sinai ; and in general, a trumpet was used to give signs and 
signals, e. g. for an onset in battle, &c. Afterwards, this representation 
was literally understood, and the size of the trumpet was supposed to 
be a thousand yards, and that it was blown seven times." — Knapp's 
Theology, II. p. 625. 



264 ESCHATOLOGY. 

glorious body. This is, in verity, a " first resurrec- 
tion " and a second.* 



ETHICAL IMPORT. 

On a question like the present, whose decision 
must rest on a " Thus saith the Lord," we should 
introduce our philosophy only with the greatest cau- 
tion and with modesty. Still, as there are different 
opinions, as to what is the divine teaching, it may, 
with propriety, be asked of the two several interpre- 
tations, which is in closest harmony with the teach- 
ings on other subjects, and with the general spirit of 
the Bible ; and especially which embodies the great- 
est amount of moral power for the good of men and 
the glory of God. Tried by this criterion, we affirm 
unhesitatingly, that the exegesis of these pages tow- 
ers immeasurably above the other. The common 
theory carries the Judgment far, far, we know not 



* " The resurrection is the raising of the body and reunion of it with 
the soul. Death and infirmity and sin then reign over the body no 
more ; and it is a spiritual body, that is, a body adapted to spiritual 
uses : but as yet it is not fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body. 
This takes place subsequently. The dead are first raised, and then 
both they and the living are all changed at the same time." " They 
who are alive shall be caught up along with the raised saints, and there 
being changed, they shall ever be with the Lord." — Landis on the Res- 
urrection, pp. 343, 305. 

We will venture to call this spiritual body a " tertium quid." It cer- 
tainly is not the natural body (cti/ia ipvxiKov), nor is it the spiritual 
body (oufia nvevfiaiiKov) of Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 



ETHICAL IMPORT. 265 

how far into a distant future. So of the resurrec- 
tion of the body. If any importance belongs to a 
union of the soul with its future body, that impor- 
tance is diminished as a present motive, by its dis- 
tance. If heaven and hell have really no substantial 
beginning till that remote day — as some hold, and 
as all should hold, to be consistent — we understand 
enough of the philosophy of the human mind to 
know, that they are exceedingly divested of moral 
power by their distance. 

We know it will be said by some, that the Judg- 
ment is virtually at death, and that the destiny of 
men is then known by themselves and others with 
them in the spirit world, and that men do, in fact, at 
death, enter heaven or hell. But if this be so, which 
we do not deny, why is so much said of the awful, 
glorious day of Judgment, and why so much moral 
importance attached to it ? The above reply virtually 
makes that Day and its scenes a mere gorgeous pa- 
geant — a thing of no substantial importance in the 
moral administration of God over the world. But, 
we are told, it is to be a day of manifestation, and 
God is then to vindicate his ways to the universe. 
To make a full manifestation in any such sort as to 
bring individuals to trial — and that is the moral 
bearing of it as inculcated — it will take a period of 
immense length. Dr. Hopkins says, as long a period 
as from Adam to the end of the world. It would 



266 ESCHATOLOGY. 

take a thousand million times as long. For it should 
be remembered that each hour of the world's history 
implies the individual history of one thousand mill- 
ions for that hour. Will God inflict — what other 
word can our hearts accept — such a scene for such 
a period upon the holy inhabitants of heaven ? For 
my own part, I do not ask God to clear up a solitary 
fact of his administration to my heart. For though 
parts of his ways are enshrouded in mystery, I have, 
notwithstanding, a perfect conviction, a joyous, bless- 
ed conviction that all he does is right. My heart 
asks no explanation. It would be grieved if such 
were offered, and turn away from the presentation. 
No ; I want no " vindication of the ways of God to 
man," other than that which the present is constant- 
ly furnishing. Much less after dwelling long and 
happy ages in heaven shall I want it. 

And then the moral tendencies of such an exhibi- 
tion. To contemplate for a thousand million years 
multiplied by the years of earth's history, the wick- 
edness of men and devils, in all its horrid forms of 
enactment, will it promote and develop the holiness 
of the saints ? For my own part, I think I should 
need more of special grace to secure my safety there, 
than even my great infirmities demand in this pres- 
ent evil world. And I cannot believe that such a 
spectacle, for such a period, would promote either 
the good of creatures or the glory of God. 



ETHICAL IMPORT. 267 

Now, on the other hand, our interpretation makes 
the day of the Lord very near, and brings eternity — 
the Appearing of the Lord, the Judgment, the inves- 
titure with the spiritual body, close to us. Before 
the setting sun, I may " meet the Lord," and see 
him as he is ; may stand before the judgment seat of 
Christ; the mortal may have put on immortality. 
Am I a stupid worldling ? These startling realities 
are at the door. Am I a disciple of the Saviour, 
and waiting for his appearing, and hastening the 
day ? I may rejoice, for the day of my redemption 
draweth near. Eternity, in all its completeness, 
is brought close to me, and I feel the fulness of its 
moral power. 

Beyond all question, if the view taken in this vol- 
ume is the correct one, its power as a system of 
motive is immeasurably greater than that of the com- 
mon view. But, this admitted, and you have one of 
the strongest proofs of its correctness. 



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